AUF WIEDERSEHEN FINNLAND - DOCUMENTARY FILM

Premiere 2010
Length 78 min.

“Even if someone condemns you because we left with them, don't harbor hard feelings towards us. I had no choice.”
 

Elma, Roosa, Terttu and Kaisu were among the hundreds of Finnish girls who left Lapland with the retreating German troops and set out on a journey towards Germany in the fall of 1944.
 

What was their unusual journey like? How were the “German soldiers' sweethearts” received when they returned home? It is only now that the women are able to speak about their forbidden love, their journey and the bitter homecoming that followed.
 

Remembering and reconciling can be difficult. These women and the son of a German soldier struggle with both themselves and others to find the truth about their pasts. They are forced to ask themselves if denying the past will rob them of their entire lives.

Director: Virpi Suutari

Editor: Heikki Färm

Leikkaus: Jukka Nykänen

Sound designer: Olli Huhtanen

Music : Johanna Juhola, Pekka Kuusisto

Producer: Cilla Werning