Äideistä parhain (Mother of Mine)

What a spectacular movie in every way! I loved the views of the open rolling Swedish hillsides and the winter scenes shot amongst the slender grey-white Finnish birch trees. Color was used to great effect to create atmosphere and also to delineate the past from the present; interestingly, the present was filmed in black and white and the past was filmed in color.

I chose this movie because I like good movies and I also like listening to foreign sounds. I also find it interesting to see what different countries might consider important to their history and culture. Mother of Mine takes place in Finland and Sweden during World War II. During the War, Finland fought off Russian invasion and while this was happening, some of the Finnish children were sent to neighboring countries and placed in foster homes in order to protect them from harm. As can be imagined, many of the children were separated from their parents unwillingly. A young boy, Eero Lahti, struggles with being uprooted from his homeland and leaving his mother behind while adapting to a new way of life and foster mother, Signe Jönsson. In turn, Signe must learn to deal with issues from her past in order to fully accept Eero into her life.