Miss Flicks

Compartment No. 6: Film Review

Compartment No. 6 won the Grand Prix at Cannes alongside A Hero last year and was Finland’s pick for the Best International Feature Film Oscar (it wasn’t nominated though) and I can see why – it’s a lovely film.

The story follows Laura (Seidi Haarla), a young Finnish archaeology student who takes a long-distance journey from Moscow to the bitterly cold and wintery Murmansk in North Russia to see the petroglyphs – rock paintings that have been there for thousands of years. She has to share her train compartment – you guessed it, number six! – with Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov), a foul-mouthed Russian skinhead going to Murmansk to work in a mine. Laura decides she can’t live in the cramped carriage with this drunken misogynist but she has no choice.

Somewhat predictably, the chalk and cheese duo learn to become friends and perhaps even more – but it is still charming to see it happen. After their initial frosty meeting, their walls gradually come down and we get to see the vulnerable man under Ljoha’s tough, macho exterior, and Laura – who is dwelling on her affair with her professor back in Moscow – relaxes and opens up more.

I liked watching them getting to know each other and their activities both on and off the train. However, it lost me a little when it got to Murmansk because it spends too long following Laura on her mission to see the petroglyphs. Thankfully, director Juho Kuosmanen brings it all together in a really satisfying and heartwarming way and the final moment will put a big smile on your face.

In cinemas and Curzon Home Cinema from Friday 8th April