The Cuckoo

Near the end of the Second World War, in September 1944, two soldiers from opposing sides end up at the same remote farm in Lapland. A Finnish sniper, Veikko, has been left chained to a rock by retreating German troops. A Soviet army captain, Ivan, escapes when the convoy taking him to interrogation is attacked. Both are taken in by Anni, a Sami woman who lives alone on her farm. She treats the two men not as enemies but simply as people, and the three of them must find a way to share the same household despite speaking three different languages and having no common tongue. The title refers to the Russian nickname for Finnish snipers.

Aleksandr Rogozhkin directed and wrote the film, which followed his 1990 film The Guard and preceded Sapiens, The Weapon and Aphrodites in his filmography. Sergei Selyanov produced it for CTB Film Company, and the cast is led by Anni-Kristiina Juuso as Anni, Ville Haapasalo as Veikko and Viktor Bychkov as Ivan, with twenty credited roles in all.

Made for about four million dollars, The Cuckoo blends comedy, drama and romance. It holds a rating of 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb from around 8,200 votes, and 7.1 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes.