WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.720 The Cuckoo, 2002, an anti -war comedy of errors, 00:00:03.879 --> 00:00:07.280 deep dive film analysis. Join us for a fascinating 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:10.900 deep dive into The Cuckoo, Kushka, the award 00:00:10.900 --> 00:00:14.279 -winning 2002 Russian war drama directed by Alexander 00:00:14.279 --> 00:00:17.019 Rogozkin. Set in the final days of World War 00:00:17.019 --> 00:00:19.899 II, this critically acclaimed foreign film traps 00:00:19.899 --> 00:00:22.859 a Finnish sniper, a Soviet captain, and a Sami 00:00:22.859 --> 00:00:26.480 woman on a remote farm. The catch. None of them 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:28.920 speak the same language. We unpack the film's 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:31.460 unique blend of sweet comedy and wartime tragedy, 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:34.240 exploring its sweeping wins at the Russian Golden 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:37.299 Eagle and Nika Awards. If you love deep analysis 00:00:37.299 --> 00:00:40.159 of World War II films, multilingual cinema, or 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:41.920 just a beautifully human story about surviving 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:44.560 the absurdity of war, this deep dive is for you. 00:00:45.079 --> 00:00:47.000 Have you ever found yourself in a situation where 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:49.140 you felt completely, utterly misunderstood? Oh, 00:00:49.159 --> 00:00:50.960 absolutely. All the time. Right. Like a moment 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:52.740 where the words leaving your mouth just entirely 00:00:52.740 --> 00:00:54.479 failed to connect with the person standing right 00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:56.039 in front of you. It is incredibly frustrating. 00:00:56.320 --> 00:00:58.340 It really is. Even in just normal day -to -day 00:00:58.340 --> 00:01:00.719 life. But today we have a stack of sources that 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:03.420 takes that exact concept, that idea of a deep 00:01:03.420 --> 00:01:06.390 misunderstanding and... And it dials it up to 00:01:06.390 --> 00:01:09.069 literal life or death stakes. It really does. 00:01:09.290 --> 00:01:11.290 OK, let's unpack this because we are looking 00:01:11.290 --> 00:01:15.069 at a detailed overview of the 2002 Russian film 00:01:15.069 --> 00:01:19.269 The Cuckoo or Kukushka in its original title. 00:01:19.349 --> 00:01:22.349 Right. Directed by Alexander Rogoshkin. And if 00:01:22.349 --> 00:01:25.129 you love deep analysis of World War Two films 00:01:25.129 --> 00:01:28.349 or multilingual cinema, this is definitely for 00:01:28.349 --> 00:01:31.260 you. it's a remarkable piece of cinema and what's 00:01:31.260 --> 00:01:33.400 fascinating here is that ragoshkin doesn't give 00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:36.260 us the standard early 2000s war drama not at 00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:38.459 all you know the type the massive sweeping battle 00:01:38.459 --> 00:01:41.280 sequences yeah generals pushing tiny tanks across 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:44.239 giant maps and smoky rooms exactly instead he 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:46.599 delivers a master class in synthesis i mean he 00:01:46.599 --> 00:01:48.939 takes the sprawling geopolitical devastation 00:01:48.939 --> 00:01:50.760 of the second world war and just shrinks it down 00:01:50.760 --> 00:01:53.659 to one tiny isolated farmhouse in the middle 00:01:53.659 --> 00:01:55.959 of nowhere right he isolates three people from 00:01:55.959 --> 00:01:58.290 three completely different worlds he wraps them 00:01:58.290 --> 00:02:00.810 together. And the kicker is that absolutely none 00:02:00.810 --> 00:02:02.870 of them speak the same language. Which is such 00:02:02.870 --> 00:02:05.870 a brilliant premise. It is. On its surface, you 00:02:05.870 --> 00:02:08.349 could almost describe the premise as an anti 00:02:08.349 --> 00:02:11.780 -war comedy of errors. But the historical context 00:02:11.780 --> 00:02:14.599 underneath it is incredibly tense. You're very 00:02:14.599 --> 00:02:16.800 tense. And just as a quick note for you listening, 00:02:16.979 --> 00:02:20.319 our goal here is simply to explore how these 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:23.199 different historical factions, so the Soviets, 00:02:23.419 --> 00:02:26.939 the NKVD secret police, the German Waffen -SS, 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:29.900 the Finnish soldiers, how they function within 00:02:29.900 --> 00:02:32.199 the story. Right. We aren't taking sides on the 00:02:32.199 --> 00:02:34.379 history here. Exactly. We're just analyzing the 00:02:34.379 --> 00:02:37.530 narrative Rogozkin. built based on our source 00:02:37.530 --> 00:02:39.530 material. And we have to start by grounding ourselves 00:02:39.530 --> 00:02:41.330 in the setting. Let's do it. It is September 00:02:41.330 --> 00:02:45.370 1944. We are deep in a remote Lapland forest 00:02:45.370 --> 00:02:48.030 during the final chaotic moments of what's known 00:02:48.030 --> 00:02:50.500 as the Continuation War. And for those who might 00:02:50.500 --> 00:02:52.439 need a quick refresher on that specific theater 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:54.520 of the war. Right. This is the conflict where 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:56.680 Finland was fighting the Soviet Union. And for 00:02:56.680 --> 00:02:58.860 a time, they were co -belligerents with Germany. 00:02:59.060 --> 00:03:02.479 But by late 1944, that alliance is fracturing. 00:03:02.500 --> 00:03:04.479 It's collapsing. The lines are falling apart 00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:07.319 and it's total chaos out there. Which brings 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:09.539 us to our first character. His name is Veko, 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:13.699 played by Vil Hapasalo. He is a Finnish soldier, 00:03:13.819 --> 00:03:16.800 but things are, well, they're not going well 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:19.050 for him. That is an understatement. Yeah. His 00:03:19.050 --> 00:03:22.129 own unit has branded him a pacifist or would 00:03:22.129 --> 00:03:25.729 -be deserter. And their punishment for him is 00:03:25.729 --> 00:03:28.870 just incredibly grim. It really is. They essentially 00:03:28.870 --> 00:03:31.530 turn him into what military historians call a 00:03:31.530 --> 00:03:34.930 forlorn hope. A forlorn hope. Yeah. That's a 00:03:34.930 --> 00:03:38.629 soldier assigned to a doomed, basically suicidal 00:03:38.629 --> 00:03:41.669 defensive position just to buy time for everyone 00:03:41.669 --> 00:03:44.270 else to retreat. Wow. The specific term his commanders 00:03:44.270 --> 00:03:47.099 use in the film is a kukushka. which translates 00:03:47.099 --> 00:03:49.719 to a cuckoo sniper. Hence the title of the film. 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:51.740 Exactly. And to make sure he doesn't run away, 00:03:51.900 --> 00:03:55.159 his compatriots chain him to a large rock outcrop 00:03:55.159 --> 00:03:57.719 in this freezing, desolate forest. He's left 00:03:57.719 --> 00:03:59.900 there. Chained. They leave him with a sniper 00:03:59.900 --> 00:04:02.120 rifle, some ammunition, a little bit of water, 00:04:02.199 --> 00:04:04.699 and that's it. But the detail that really highlights 00:04:04.699 --> 00:04:07.280 the cruelty of his commanders is his outfit. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.620 They force Vako to put on the uniform of the 00:04:10.620 --> 00:04:13.159 German Waffen -SS. Why go through the trouble 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:15.439 of changing his clothes before chaining him to 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:18.329 a rock? Because it's an insurance policy. The 00:04:18.329 --> 00:04:20.790 Finnish soldiers know that the advancing Soviet 00:04:20.790 --> 00:04:24.730 troops show zero mercy to the SS. Oh, man. So 00:04:24.730 --> 00:04:28.089 by putting Vako in that specific uniform, they 00:04:28.089 --> 00:04:30.329 are ensuring that if he tries to surrender to 00:04:30.329 --> 00:04:32.970 the Soviets, he'll be shot on sight. He has no 00:04:32.970 --> 00:04:36.110 choice. He has to fight. He is physically chained 00:04:36.110 --> 00:04:39.160 to a rock. and symbolically chained to an ideology 00:04:39.160 --> 00:04:42.519 and a uniform that he actively despises. It's 00:04:42.519 --> 00:04:44.939 a perfect physical and psychological trap. You 00:04:44.939 --> 00:04:47.040 literally can't just walk away from that. He's 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:49.720 trapped in a war he wants no part of. But human 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:52.579 desperation is a powerful motivator. Oh, yeah. 00:04:53.050 --> 00:04:55.310 Vako doesn't just sit there and accept his fate. 00:04:55.529 --> 00:04:58.129 After agonizing days of trying to break free, 00:04:58.310 --> 00:05:00.750 he actually manages to detach himself from the 00:05:00.750 --> 00:05:02.850 rock. But the visual the director gives us here 00:05:02.850 --> 00:05:05.370 is so potent. It's amazing. He escapes the rock, 00:05:05.490 --> 00:05:07.689 but he can't get the heavy iron shackles off 00:05:07.689 --> 00:05:10.170 his body. Right. So he's wandering the wilderness, 00:05:10.350 --> 00:05:13.790 freezing, wearing an SS uniform he hates, clanking 00:05:13.790 --> 00:05:16.290 through the snow with these massive chains dragging 00:05:16.290 --> 00:05:19.410 behind him. That image sets the tone perfectly. 00:05:19.870 --> 00:05:22.470 And while Vako is dragging his chains through 00:05:22.470 --> 00:05:24.889 the woods, the war is busy chewing up someone 00:05:24.889 --> 00:05:26.910 else just a few miles away. Right, our second 00:05:26.910 --> 00:05:29.370 character. This is where we meet Ivan, played 00:05:29.370 --> 00:05:32.699 by Viktor Bychkov. Ivan is a Red Army captain, 00:05:32.839 --> 00:05:35.740 but much like Vako, his own side has turned against 00:05:35.740 --> 00:05:38.139 him. Which is wild. Yeah, Ivan has been arrested 00:05:38.139 --> 00:05:41.279 by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, for anti 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:44.259 -Soviet correspondence. So basically, he wrote 00:05:44.259 --> 00:05:46.220 something he shouldn't have or someone claimed 00:05:46.220 --> 00:05:49.089 he did, and given the paranoia of the era, An 00:05:49.089 --> 00:05:51.069 NKVD arrest and a court -martial essentially 00:05:51.069 --> 00:05:53.470 mean a death sentence. Or a one -way trip to 00:05:53.470 --> 00:05:57.009 the gulag, yes. Precisely. Yeah. Ivan is riding 00:05:57.009 --> 00:05:59.529 in a transport vehicle, fully expecting to die 00:05:59.529 --> 00:06:02.569 by execution. But then the sheer blind chaos 00:06:02.569 --> 00:06:05.889 of war intervenes. Friendly fire. Yeah. A Soviet 00:06:05.889 --> 00:06:08.430 plane is flying overhead, gets its targets mixed 00:06:08.430 --> 00:06:11.350 up, and accidentally bombs Ivan's transport vehicle. 00:06:11.389 --> 00:06:13.769 It's unbelievable. It's a devastating friendly 00:06:13.769 --> 00:06:16.649 fire incident. Yeah. The blast kills his driver 00:06:16.649 --> 00:06:19.439 and his armed guard. And in a great piece of 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:22.939 cinematic editing, Vaco, who is still chained 00:06:22.939 --> 00:06:25.759 to his rock at this point, actually watches this 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:28.279 entire bombing happen right through the scope 00:06:28.279 --> 00:06:30.699 of his sniper rifle. I love that. The threads 00:06:30.699 --> 00:06:32.339 are already pulling these characters together 00:06:32.339 --> 00:06:35.300 before they even do it. Ivan survives the blast, 00:06:35.420 --> 00:06:37.560 but he's in terrible shape. He's bleeding out 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:40.980 in the snow. And that is when our third character 00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:44.569 steps into the frame. Ani. played by Ani Christina 00:06:44.569 --> 00:06:48.050 Jusso. Yes. Ani is a Sami reindeer farmer and 00:06:48.050 --> 00:06:50.670 the Sami are the indigenous people of that northern 00:06:50.670 --> 00:06:53.670 Scandinavian region. Her backstory is just brutal. 00:06:53.670 --> 00:06:55.829 They're tragic. Four years before the film even 00:06:55.829 --> 00:06:57.970 starts, the German army came through and took 00:06:57.970 --> 00:07:00.160 everything from her. They took her husband and 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:02.379 they took her entire herd of reindeer, which 00:07:02.379 --> 00:07:04.519 was her sole source of survival. So she has been 00:07:04.519 --> 00:07:06.759 completely isolated ever since, living alone 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:09.220 in this rugged, hand -built wooden hut, surviving 00:07:09.220 --> 00:07:12.120 purely on her own grit. She's out foraging in 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:14.959 the wilderness when she stumbles across the smoldering 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:18.240 wreckage of Ivan's transport. She sees the bodies, 00:07:18.439 --> 00:07:20.560 assumes they're all dead, and starts the hard 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:23.279 work of burying them. Naturally. But as she's 00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:25.620 moving Ivan, she realizes he's still breathing. 00:07:26.459 --> 00:07:29.100 So true to her practical nature, she hauls this 00:07:29.100 --> 00:07:32.139 heavily injured Soviet captain back to her hut 00:07:32.139 --> 00:07:34.839 to nurse him back to health. If we connect this 00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:37.800 to the bigger picture. Rogozkin is setting up 00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:40.160 a brilliant cross -section of the war. Definitely. 00:07:40.379 --> 00:07:42.459 You have a Finnish soldier rejected by his own 00:07:42.459 --> 00:07:45.480 men. You have a Soviet captain nearly killed 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:48.019 by his own air force. And you have a civilian 00:07:48.019 --> 00:07:50.699 widow whose entire life was collateral damage. 00:07:51.139 --> 00:07:53.680 The war has chewed all three of them up and spat 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:55.819 them out at the edge of the world. Exactly. They've 00:07:55.819 --> 00:07:58.000 been stripped of their communities, their ranks, 00:07:58.139 --> 00:08:00.819 and their former lives, which perfectly sets 00:08:00.819 --> 00:08:02.980 the stage for what happens next. The meeting. 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:05.939 Right. Vico, still dragging those heavy chains, 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:08.339 eventually wanders onto Annie's farm looking 00:08:08.339 --> 00:08:11.459 for a hammer or a chisel, anything to cut the 00:08:11.459 --> 00:08:13.899 shackles off. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:08:14.100 --> 00:08:17.639 You finally have all three characters under one 00:08:17.639 --> 00:08:20.920 tiny snow -covered roof. And this is the engine 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:23.839 that drives the entire plot. Vico only speaks 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:26.620 Finnish. Ivan only speaks Russian. And Annie 00:08:26.620 --> 00:08:30.220 only speaks Sami. They cannot communicate a single 00:08:30.220 --> 00:08:32.960 complex thought to one another. Not one. They 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:35.139 have to rely entirely on gestures, pointing, 00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:38.100 and assumptions. It creates a brilliant dynamic 00:08:38.100 --> 00:08:40.039 where the audience knows everything, but the 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:42.820 characters know almost nothing. Yes. Let's look 00:08:42.820 --> 00:08:45.059 at the famous Schulte misunderstanding. This 00:08:45.059 --> 00:08:48.240 is great. Vako, trying to be polite, points to 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:50.259 himself and gives his name, then gestures to 00:08:50.259 --> 00:08:53.120 Ivan, asking for his. Now, put yourself in Ivan's 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:55.980 shoes for a second. Ivan is a deeply loyal Soviet 00:08:55.980 --> 00:08:58.730 captain. He looks up and sees a man standing 00:08:58.730 --> 00:09:00.889 in his room wearing the uniform of the German 00:09:00.889 --> 00:09:03.789 Waffen -SS. So Ivan assumes this is the ultimate 00:09:03.789 --> 00:09:06.429 enemy, a Nazi who has wandered into the cabin. 00:09:06.610 --> 00:09:10.289 Exactly. So Ivan glares at him, refuses to give 00:09:10.289 --> 00:09:14.190 his name, and barks out in Russian, In Russian, 00:09:14.429 --> 00:09:16.850 that essentially means get lost or go to hell. 00:09:17.009 --> 00:09:19.909 But Veko and Ani don't speak Russian. So Veko 00:09:19.909 --> 00:09:26.350 just smiles, nods, and goes, It's so good. For 00:09:26.350 --> 00:09:29.289 the entire rest of the film, Vako and Ani genuinely 00:09:29.289 --> 00:09:32.230 believe this man's first name is Schulte. It's 00:09:32.230 --> 00:09:35.029 hilarious, but the underlying tension is incredibly 00:09:35.029 --> 00:09:38.529 thick. Because Ivan is lying there nursing a 00:09:38.529 --> 00:09:41.490 very real deep -seated hatred. Right, he thinks 00:09:41.490 --> 00:09:43.929 he's rooming with a killer. He fully believes 00:09:43.929 --> 00:09:45.889 he is trapped in a room with a fascist killer. 00:09:46.129 --> 00:09:49.269 But let me ask you, knowing Ivan's military background, 00:09:49.529 --> 00:09:51.470 why do you think he doesn't just attack Vako 00:09:51.470 --> 00:09:53.529 right then and there? Well, I imagine it's a 00:09:53.529 --> 00:09:56.240 mix of self -preservation and confusion. Ivan 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:58.919 is severely injured from the bombing. He doesn't 00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:01.759 have a weapon. And they are both currently relying 00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:04.360 on Ani just to stay warm and fed. That's a huge 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:06.840 part of it. Plus, Vako isn't acting like an enemy 00:10:06.840 --> 00:10:08.940 combatant. Vako just wants to borrow a hammer 00:10:08.940 --> 00:10:11.559 to hit his chains. He's completely oblivious 00:10:11.559 --> 00:10:14.139 to Ivan's boiling anger. That's exactly it. It's 00:10:14.139 --> 00:10:16.740 an awkward, freezing stalemate. And the wild 00:10:16.740 --> 00:10:20.120 card in all of this is Ani? Yes, Ani. Ani simply 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:22.559 doesn't care about the uniforms. She's been living 00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:25.279 alone in the woods for four years. She completely 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:28.000 lacks the geopolitical context that Ivan and 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:30.639 Vako are so fiercely clinging to. She doesn't 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:33.850 see sides. No. For Annie, these aren't soldiers 00:10:33.850 --> 00:10:36.090 representing warring nations. They're just two 00:10:36.090 --> 00:10:39.070 very hungry, very injured men who need shelter. 00:10:39.309 --> 00:10:42.110 And that perspective is vital for you as the 00:10:42.110 --> 00:10:45.009 listener to absorb. Her lack of context allows 00:10:45.009 --> 00:10:47.610 her to see their shared humanity in a way the 00:10:47.610 --> 00:10:50.730 men are entirely blind to. She steps in almost 00:10:50.730 --> 00:10:53.779 like a force of nature. which leads to this bizarre, 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:57.200 almost surreal domestic routine. They are completely 00:10:57.200 --> 00:10:59.259 cut off from the rest of the world, and winter 00:10:59.259 --> 00:11:02.000 is fast approaching. The lap winter is no joke. 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:05.059 No, it's brutal. But despite the massive language 00:11:05.059 --> 00:11:07.759 barrier, they start to form a tiny, functional 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:10.500 community. The men figure out ways to pull their 00:11:10.500 --> 00:11:12.720 weight using just hand signals and grunts. They 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:15.000 adapt. Vako takes it upon himself to build a 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.159 sauna for the property. Ivan, as he recovers, 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:20.899 goes out into the woods to pick mushrooms. It's 00:11:20.899 --> 00:11:23.419 this strange slice of domesticity hiding right 00:11:23.419 --> 00:11:26.179 in the middle of a world war. But domesticity 00:11:26.179 --> 00:11:29.299 brings other human elements to the surface. Namely, 00:11:29.299 --> 00:11:34.039 desire. Annie is deeply practical. And the sources 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:36.759 highlight a very real fact here. She hasn't been 00:11:36.759 --> 00:11:40.080 with a man in four years. She is starved for 00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:42.919 companionship, for physical touch, for affection. 00:11:43.240 --> 00:11:45.059 Completely understandable. And she doesn't let 00:11:45.059 --> 00:11:46.639 the fact that she can't speak their language 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:49.179 stop her from pursuing what she wants. She sets 00:11:49.179 --> 00:11:51.639 her sights on Vico, who is young and strapping, 00:11:51.639 --> 00:11:54.899 and she seduces him. Which immediately injects 00:11:54.899 --> 00:11:56.779 a completely different kind of tension into the 00:11:56.779 --> 00:11:59.340 cabin. Yeah. A love triangle. Right. Ivan is 00:11:59.340 --> 00:12:01.820 middle -aged, he's still injured, and he becomes 00:12:01.820 --> 00:12:04.659 intensely jealous of this dynamic. Think about 00:12:04.659 --> 00:12:07.830 the psychological knot Ivan is in here. He is 00:12:07.830 --> 00:12:10.149 already furious because he thinks Vico is a German 00:12:10.149 --> 00:12:13.389 soldier. Now, this supposed German is sleeping 00:12:13.389 --> 00:12:15.370 with the woman who saved his life right under 00:12:15.370 --> 00:12:18.730 his nose. The jealousy mixes with the political 00:12:18.730 --> 00:12:21.350 hatred. This raises an important question for 00:12:21.350 --> 00:12:24.169 everyone listening. What happens when the labels 00:12:24.169 --> 00:12:26.450 of friend and enemy crash headfirst into the 00:12:26.450 --> 00:12:28.929 basic necessities of survival? It's a great question. 00:12:29.269 --> 00:12:31.450 Rogozkin seems to be arguing that without the 00:12:31.450 --> 00:12:33.970 propaganda, without commanders barking orders 00:12:33.970 --> 00:12:37.200 about who to shoot, Humans default to cooperation. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:40.919 The power of an SS uniform or a Soviet badge 00:12:40.919 --> 00:12:43.440 starts to look pretty ridiculous when your main 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:45.600 objective for the day is just chopping enough 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:47.720 firewood so you don't freeze to death that night. 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:50.600 That is the core anti -war message of the film. 00:12:50.700 --> 00:12:53.759 The geopolitical conflict is exposed as artificial 00:12:53.759 --> 00:12:57.240 when placed next to primal human needs. Food, 00:12:57.259 --> 00:13:00.980 warmth, shelter. companionship yeah but of course 00:13:00.980 --> 00:13:03.120 the real world rarely lets you hide in the woods 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:05.639 forever right so what does this all mean when 00:13:05.639 --> 00:13:07.679 the outside world finally catches up to them 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:10.179 because just as they settle into this strange 00:13:10.179 --> 00:13:12.960 gesture -based rhythm of life the war literally 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:15.950 drops out of the sky The climax. The climax of 00:13:15.950 --> 00:13:18.110 the film hinges on another accident. A Soviet 00:13:18.110 --> 00:13:20.149 biplane crashes in the forest near the farm. 00:13:20.230 --> 00:13:22.570 The plane was carrying propaganda leaflets and 00:13:22.570 --> 00:13:25.289 the crash scatters these papers everywhere across 00:13:25.289 --> 00:13:27.269 the snow. And these aren't just any leaflets. 00:13:27.330 --> 00:13:29.490 They announce an official armistice between the 00:13:29.490 --> 00:13:32.289 USSR and Finland. Huge news. The continuation 00:13:32.289 --> 00:13:35.519 war is over. When Vako finds one of the papers 00:13:35.519 --> 00:13:38.320 in the snow, he reads the Finnish text and is 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:41.700 absolutely overjoyed. The relief washes over 00:13:41.700 --> 00:13:44.759 him. He's no longer a hunted man. He can finally 00:13:44.759 --> 00:13:48.320 go home. But remember the language barrier. Ivan 00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:51.940 doesn't read Finnish. Ivan sees the crashed Soviet 00:13:51.940 --> 00:13:55.200 plane, he sees the scattered papers, and he starts 00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:57.159 digging through the wreckage until he finds a 00:13:57.159 --> 00:14:00.120 pilot's pistol. Right. In Ivan's mind, Vako is 00:14:00.120 --> 00:14:03.980 still a dangerous SS soldier. He sees Vako acting 00:14:03.980 --> 00:14:07.259 erratically, celebrating, moving toward the wreckage. 00:14:07.700 --> 00:14:10.740 Ivan thinks Vako is reaching for a weapon, so 00:14:10.740 --> 00:14:12.860 his military conditioning takes over, and he 00:14:12.860 --> 00:14:15.340 shoots Vako. It's a gut -wrenching moment. He 00:14:15.340 --> 00:14:17.360 shoots the man he's been living with, the man 00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:19.519 who built their sauna. It's awful. But the real 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:21.879 tragedy is what happens seconds later. Ivan looks 00:14:21.879 --> 00:14:24.000 down at the leaflet he picked up. At the very 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:25.659 bottom of the page, there is a small section 00:14:25.659 --> 00:14:27.559 of text written in Russian. The instructions. 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:29.779 Yes, it's an instruction for Soviet soldiers, 00:14:29.940 --> 00:14:32.000 telling them to let Finnish troops return home 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.220 unharmed because the peace treaty has been signed. 00:14:34.419 --> 00:14:36.700 The language barrier lists just enough to let 00:14:36.700 --> 00:14:39.580 the awful truth in. Ivan realizes the war is 00:14:39.580 --> 00:14:42.299 over, and more importantly, he realizes Vika 00:14:42.299 --> 00:14:45.159 was never a German. He was a Finn celebrating 00:14:45.159 --> 00:14:48.440 peace. The realization hits him hard. The remorse 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:51.889 is instant. Ivan drops all his hostility. wades 00:14:51.889 --> 00:14:54.269 through the snow and carries a bleeding near 00:14:54.269 --> 00:14:56.990 -death Vico back to Annie's hut. The irony is 00:14:56.990 --> 00:14:59.409 sharp. The very realization of peace is what 00:14:59.409 --> 00:15:02.169 almost cost Vico his life. But this is where 00:15:02.169 --> 00:15:04.169 Annie's deep connection to the earth and her 00:15:04.169 --> 00:15:07.120 culture takes center stage. I love this part 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:09.240 of the film. She doesn't just bandage Vako up. 00:15:09.340 --> 00:15:12.080 She performs ancient Sami healing rituals. She 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:14.299 beats a drum. She travels to the spirit world. 00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:16.820 She physically and emotionally wrestles Vako 00:15:16.820 --> 00:15:19.279 back from the brink of death. It's incredibly 00:15:19.279 --> 00:15:22.000 grounded but powerful. She simply refuses to 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:23.899 let the war take another man from her cabin. 00:15:24.139 --> 00:15:27.100 And the craziest part is, while Vako is bedridden 00:15:27.100 --> 00:15:29.899 and recovering, Annie's need for connection ends 00:15:29.899 --> 00:15:32.220 up drawing Ivan into her bed as well. It's a 00:15:32.220 --> 00:15:35.299 messy, complex, very human resolution, the ethnic 00:15:35.299 --> 00:15:37.919 hatred. the geopolitical brainwashing, the petty 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:39.919 jealousy, it all just dissolves in the reality 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:42.200 of their shared existence. They just let it go. 00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:44.980 By the time Vako recovers, he and Ivan actually 00:15:44.980 --> 00:15:47.980 become friends. The war is over for them in every 00:15:47.980 --> 00:15:50.399 sense of the word. Eventually, the deep Lapland 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:53.379 winter sets in. The men realize they can't stay 00:15:53.379 --> 00:15:56.220 in this little bubble forever. They pack up and 00:15:56.220 --> 00:15:58.159 head back to their respective homes in opposite 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:01.259 directions. A bittersweet ending. Very. And the 00:16:01.259 --> 00:16:03.799 film leaves us with this poignant, almost quiet 00:16:03.799 --> 00:16:08.059 finale. Ani is left behind in her hut. The camera 00:16:08.059 --> 00:16:10.059 pulls back to reveal that she is telling this 00:16:10.059 --> 00:16:13.159 entire story to her two young children. And we 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:15.220 find out she has named them after their fathers, 00:16:15.460 --> 00:16:19.799 Veko and Schulte. That specific detail perfectly 00:16:19.799 --> 00:16:21.820 encapsulates everything the movie is trying to 00:16:21.820 --> 00:16:24.500 say. She named her child Get Lost in Russian. 00:16:24.679 --> 00:16:27.399 But to her, the word has absolutely no malice. 00:16:27.460 --> 00:16:30.240 To her, Schulte means the man who picked mushrooms 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:32.879 with her. The man who survived a bomb blast. 00:16:33.159 --> 00:16:36.340 The man she shared a cold winter with. She completely 00:16:36.340 --> 00:16:38.440 strips the hostility out of the language and 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:41.360 replaces it with love. When you look at Ivan 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:43.980 and Vako's entire journey. You start to see exactly 00:16:43.980 --> 00:16:46.440 why audiences and critics fell in love with this 00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:48.460 movie. Oh, the critical acclaim was staggering. 00:16:48.779 --> 00:16:51.159 Looking at our sources, The Cuckoo sits at an 00:16:51.159 --> 00:16:54.639 87 % on Rotten Tomatoes, hailed as a sweet and 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:57.659 amusing comedy. But it really made its mark during 00:16:57.659 --> 00:17:00.899 the 2002 and 2003 award seasons. It definitely 00:17:00.899 --> 00:17:03.480 did. It didn't just win a few festival nods. 00:17:03.789 --> 00:17:06.029 it completely swept the Russian Golden Eagle 00:17:06.029 --> 00:17:08.069 and Nika Awards. Right, which are essentially 00:17:08.069 --> 00:17:10.470 the Russian equivalents of the Oscars. It took 00:17:10.470 --> 00:17:13.029 home Best Picture, Best Director for Rogozkin, 00:17:13.150 --> 00:17:15.549 Best Actor. Cooked the board. And it won major 00:17:15.549 --> 00:17:17.529 awards in Italy and at the Moscow International 00:17:17.529 --> 00:17:20.650 Film Festival. The crew was even awarded the 00:17:20.650 --> 00:17:22.890 State Prize of the Russian Federation in 2004. 00:17:23.349 --> 00:17:27.369 Wow. And we have to ask why. Why did a film with 00:17:27.369 --> 00:17:30.390 almost no combat resonate so deeply in a country 00:17:30.390 --> 00:17:33.170 that is historically very proud of its massive, 00:17:33.250 --> 00:17:36.069 gritty World War II epic? Because it held a mirror 00:17:36.069 --> 00:17:38.910 up to a heavily militarized society and asked 00:17:38.910 --> 00:17:40.390 them to look at what happens when you just drop 00:17:40.390 --> 00:17:43.309 the guns. It took a heavily trodden genre and 00:17:43.309 --> 00:17:46.329 subverted all of the expectations. No clear -cut 00:17:46.329 --> 00:17:48.990 villains, no dramatic charges over the trenches, 00:17:49.269 --> 00:17:52.569 just a profound exploration of empathy driven 00:17:52.569 --> 00:17:56.259 entirely by misunderstandings. It reminds us 00:17:56.259 --> 00:17:59.140 that underneath the uniforms and the flags, our 00:17:59.140 --> 00:18:02.339 basic human operating system is exactly the same. 00:18:02.460 --> 00:18:04.880 It is. I want to leave you with a final thought 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:07.059 to mull over, one that builds on the core theme 00:18:07.059 --> 00:18:09.079 of the cuckoo. Think about the world we live 00:18:09.079 --> 00:18:11.640 in today. It is hyper -connected. You likely 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:13.220 have an app on your phone right now that can 00:18:13.220 --> 00:18:15.420 instantly translate any language in real time. 00:18:15.849 --> 00:18:17.849 We have never had more tools for communication, 00:18:18.170 --> 00:18:20.829 yet we still manage to misunderstand each other 00:18:20.829 --> 00:18:23.250 constantly. We argue past one another on social 00:18:23.250 --> 00:18:25.809 media. We misread tones in emails. We assume 00:18:25.809 --> 00:18:27.809 the worst intentions. We have all the translation 00:18:27.809 --> 00:18:31.369 tools, but maybe less actual understanding. Precisely. 00:18:31.390 --> 00:18:34.630 The cuckoo suggests a radical idea, that sometimes 00:18:34.630 --> 00:18:36.990 the complete inability to understand each other's 00:18:36.990 --> 00:18:39.150 words might actually be the very thing that forces 00:18:39.150 --> 00:18:42.329 us to rely on our shared humanity. Without words 00:18:42.329 --> 00:18:44.670 to deceive each other or labels to categorize 00:18:44.670 --> 00:18:47.630 each other, Ivan, Veiko, and Annie had to look 00:18:47.630 --> 00:18:50.230 at actions. They had to see each other as human 00:18:50.230 --> 00:18:52.990 beings first. So think about that the next time 00:18:52.990 --> 00:18:55.309 you find yourself jumping to a conclusion in 00:18:55.309 --> 00:18:57.509 a conversation just because of the specific words 00:18:57.509 --> 00:18:59.609 someone used. Are you looking at the uniform? 00:19:00.039 --> 00:19:02.559 or the person. What an incredible perspective 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:05.079 to walk away with. Sometimes the words actually 00:19:05.079 --> 00:19:07.799 just get in the way of the meaning. Thank you 00:19:07.799 --> 00:19:09.839 again for joining us on this deep dive into the 00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:12.880 snowy, complex, and surprisingly warm world of 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:15.319 the cuckoo. It's a story that proves even the 00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:17.079 deepest divides can be bridged with a little 00:19:17.079 --> 00:19:19.859 patience, a hot sauna, and refusal to give up 00:19:19.859 --> 00:19:22.339 on each other. Until next time, keep staying 00:19:22.339 --> 00:19:24.779 curious, keep questioning the narrative, and 00:19:24.779 --> 00:19:25.559 take care out there.