Amazon Prime viewers are in luck as an acclaimed war film is available to stream on the platform. The Winter War is a 1989 Finnish war film directed by Pekka Parikka and based on the 1984 novel Talvisota by Antti Tuuri.
It is set in the 1939 Winter War and tells the story of a Finnish infantry regiment from Southern Ostrobothnia fighting on the Karelian Isthmus. It focuses mainly on a platoon of reservists from Kauhava.
The Winter War was released in Finland on November 30, 1989, and it was Finland’s most popular film with over 600,000 admissions. It won six Jussi Awards and was Finland’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 63rd Academy Awards, but was never accepted as a nominee.
The film’s synopsis reads: “Stalin orders an attack on Finland in November 1939, marking the beginning of the struggle for the small country. Two brothers join a regiment and travel to Karelia, where they try to survive the Winter War.”
The film has an impressive 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. One viewer described the film as a “masterpiece”. They stated: “A relatively lesser-known Finnish master piece about The Winter War 1939-40. One of the first ‘gritty, realistic war movies’, if not The First, which had direct or indirect influence on most war movies directed after it. No Hollywoodisms, no artificial forced plot, no superheroes, no glorification of war. Pekka Parikka’s Talvisota is the war movie that many ways redefined the genre, and to which private Ryans, Stalingrads, Hacksaw Ridge, Red Thin Lines and ilk are in debt.”
One fan described the film was the “best war movie ever”, while another said it was the “the greatest war movie”.
A user on IMDb said: “Finland and Germany always make good quality and realistic war movies. Reason: While they focus at all costs that the movie is 100% historically authentic, with the historical equipment, uniforms etc., Hollywood often used cheap replacements (at least the older ones).”
“I think this movie is one of the most realistic war-movies ever made,” added another.
The Winter War is available to stream on Amazon Prime.