Eternal Road follows the journey of Jussi Ketola, who returns home to Finland from America at the beginning of the Great Depression, hoping to live quietly and farm the land. But his fellow Finns, still raw from the ravages of the Civil War, cannot trust Ketola. One night he is forcefully taken across the Russian border, where he must cooperate with the local security police where he gets a new identity and a new life.
While the future looks bright in the beginning, Ketola finds work in the fields and falls in love with the beautiful Sara. The summer days are also overshadowed by clouds of fear as the political climate changes. And as foreigners increasingly become unwanted elements in Stalin’s regime and as people begin to disappear, Ketola must struggle to survive at every turn.
Based on the novel of Antti Tuuri, the character of Ketola was inspired by the real-life experiences of Nestori Saarimäki. Directed by Antti-Jussi Annila (Finland, 2017).
Producer Ilkka Matila will be present for a Q&A following the screening.
About the Director
Antti-Jussi Annila was born on January 8, 1977 in Helsinki, Finland. As a director and writer, he is known for his films Sauna (2008) and Jade Warrior (2006), and he has also worked as an actor. His first film Jade Warrior is a romantic kung-fu movie that combines Finnish Kalevala mythology and Chinese Wuxia, which became the first Finnish film to be screened in China.
The film won two Jussi prizes at the 2007. His second film Sauna is an unusual horror film with a pensive and mysterious look into about sin and forgiveness.
February 8, 2019
February 8, 2019
WED—February 6—7 PM & FRI—February 8—6:30 PM
$12 ($7 ASF Members)
103 min. In Finnish, English, and Russian with English subtitles.