Lapland Odyssey (Napapiirin sankarit)

Director: Dome Karukoski
Writer: Pekko Pesonen
Cast: Timo Lavikainen, Pamela Tola, Kari Ketonen, Miia Nuutila
Theatrical Release Date: October 15, 2010
On The Web IMDB Entry homepage

Synopsis: A not-too-distant cousin of "Fubar" and Harold and Kumar, Dome Karukoski’s raucous road comedy is set in Finland’s far north, where the sun is an infrequent visitor and jobs are even scarcer. The environment doesn’t exactly breed ambition – favorite pastimes for young men include sleeping, drinking, beating video games in order to unlock nudie pictures, moaning about the lack of opportunities and drinking and sleeping some more.

Janne is especially skilled at sleeping. In fact, for the last couple of years he’s chosen to sleep-in rather than fulfill a promise of buying a television converter for his girlfriend, Irina. This hasn’t bothered her much, but today turns out to be different. When Irina finds out that Janne spent the money for the converter on drinks with his friends Raha and Kapu, she offers an ultimatum: get it by first thing tomorrow morning or get out.

Janne springs into action, badgering Raha to take his controlling mother’s car and get them to the nearest town. En route, they encounter a water polo team comprised of killer lesbians, drunken Russians desperate to kill a reindeer, homicidal cabbies, hypothermia and Little Mikko, Irina’s former flame and the only financially successful man in the village.

But as with all good picaresque narratives, the real conflict is internal. Can Janne swallow his pride and ask for help when he needs it? Can he ever show enough maturity to commit to a future with Irina? Lampooning prejudices and assumptions about Finns – and their big bad neighbors to the east – "Lapland Odyssey" runs at a breakneck pace, full of twists, turns and unexpected catastrophes. It may also be the hippest, freshest comedy to emerge from Finland in years. [Synopsis courtesy of Steve Gravestock, Toronto International Film Festival]