Does anyone know whether it's true that this film would have been up for nomination in the Oscars, but that there was some "influence" asserted by Finland's neighbour to the East to not let it be shown, due to the scene where the Russian plane fires on the ambulance?
shareI don't know about the Oscar thing but the film was considered enough Anti-Soviet in the East, during the fifties.
President Kekkonen got some criticism on why this kind of movie had been made in Finland and Kekkonen promised to discuss the thing with the director Edwin Laine. That the discussion ever really took place between the director and President seems however unlikely.
Later on the scene what Russians did not like was that where Rokka guns down the whole platoon, but the overall feeling about the movie was that it made everybody silent in the end.
The Apple Scruffs Corps, 05
See you in Reykjavik!