Ambush

If you've got a hankering for war movies but resent being prompted to cheer for interventionist Americans in Asia and Africa even when it's only a movie, this is the film to see. Set in 1941, Olli Saarela's Finnish film deals not with World War II, but a lesser-known conflict that was going on at the same time: the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union. Following a battalion of Finnish soldiers assigned to press as far ahead into enemy territory as they can to assess troop strength, it's a beautifully shot and finely acted movie, thankfully slower in pace than the typical post-Private Ryan American war film. Absent any discussion of politics, the film presents war as utter futility and tragedy, a destroyer of family life as we know it; it's akin to what The Thin Red Line might have been had that film been comprehensible. With Peter Franzén, Irina Björklund, Kari Väänänen and Kari Heiskanen; based on the novel by Antti Tuuri, who coscripted with Saarela.