MovieChat Forums > Kukushka (2002) Discussion > Where is Lappland?

Where is Lappland?

posted 19 years ago by pennstatepenny
20 replies | jump to latest

Pardon my ignorance, but I'm not sure I know where Lappland is? Is it a region that crosses several countries? Sounds like their are Lapp languages that include Finnish, Swedish and Russian dialects? So I'm wondering if Lappland crosses into many countries?

I absolutely loved this movie, and feel that her home was incredible and want to learn more about Lappland and Lapp culture.

** Also, I watched the making of featurette, and she mentions concern over speaking her "mother language"...so I'm wondering what she normally speaks? She spoke English very well...and I'm guessing she is a Russian actress with Lapp heritage?

Thanks.

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[–] telvo 19 years ago

You guessed right, Lapland is a large region in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and a small part of Russia, too. Sami language has several dialects. Just google "Sami language" and "Sami people" and you'll find lots of information about them ;)

The actress is born in Finland and her name sounds Finnish, too. I guess she speaks both Sami and Finnish. As only a small minority speaks Sami in Finland, she probably speaks Finnish normally.

[–] pennstatepenny 19 years ago

Thanks so much Telvo. I went online and didn't get beyond the Swedish part of Lappland...as I got so wrapped up in the sites I found from Sweden. I'm glad to know it covers more ground, as these are all countries I want to visit someday, and maybe I can do a Lappland tour!

Thanks again.

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[–] akalias 19 years ago

If you go to sweden and norway, you should definately go to Copenhagen (Denmark's capital) aswell...

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[–] Karrik 19 years ago

If you might be interested in travelling to the Lapland and/or just generally have interest in Lapland check this site out: http://www.laplandfinland.com/

And yes, this site is about the "real Lapland", the Lapland of Finland ;) And don't listen to these Danes about travelling to Copenhagen, it's far more south than Lapland is. I think they are just so jealous of not having a Lapland on their own ;)

And when it comes to the Sami-language, I have to say something about it too. I am a Finn and speak Finnish. I don't know so much about Sami people and their language, but I did understand something out of what she was saying in the movie. Some of the words were almost the same or at least understandable but most importantly the pronounciation and the stresses of the language (yeah you guessed right, I'm not so good in English but I wouldn't know how to describe this in my mother tongue either :-D) sounded much the same. It's like when a Finn speaks English, it is so horrible that you (as a Finn) instantly know that it's a Finn who's speaking now. This made some parts make more sense. Or something like that. Geez, I can't even myself make any sense out of what I was trying to say with these last sentences :-D

[–] pkej-1 19 years ago

Lappland is a county of Finland. The Sami people are called Lapps, but we in Norway mostly say Sami; and that's what is preferred these days, as it is our own designation.

Today Sami is mostly associated with the far north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, but historically the Sami people roamed to the middle parts of Norway and Sweden as well; and you can find that a few hundred people still speak southern Sami in these regions of Norway and Sweden.

Anni-Kriistin Juuso is from Finnland, and if I'm not mistaken she speaks northern Sami, at least I could understand her pretty well; and I have trouble with other Sami dialects. She might be Inari-Sami, but I'm pretty sure she's Northern-Sami.

If you want to learn more about Sami culture I'd suggest also taking a look at the movie "Ofelas" (http://imdb.com/title/tt0093668/).

Ah, one more thing, Russian, Sami and Finnish are all part of the Finno-Urgic language tree. Quite big differences between them, but there are words in Finnish which I can understand because of what I know of Sami language.

[–] veli-pekka-halme 19 years ago

In fact Russian is not a Finno-Ugric language. It's an indo-european language. I found it rather strange that Veikko didn't understand anything that Anni said because I as a Finn understood some words of Sami. I think it would have been possible for the two of them to find out the similarities of their languages and use them to communicate. But of course it would have taken time.

[–] Shaolin_Apu 19 years ago

Sami is much more difficult for a Finn to understand than Estonian language. I know only one phrase in Sami "kost mun aksul" which means "where's my axe".

Puukkoo
Play it again, Frank, I don't give a damn.

[–] kimmeu 18 years ago

The correct phrase is "Gos lea mu akšu?"

And the "š" charcter is pronounced as an long and thick s.

--
Kimme Utsi <http://kimme.blogspot.com/>;

[–] morphe111 17 years ago

Saami: Gos lea mu akšu?
Finnish: missä on mun kirves? (mun - short for ´minun´)
Estonian: Kus on mu kirves? (mu - short for ´minu´)

Similarity is obvious for all three examples.

[–] ndc3 19 years ago

Actually, he understood quite a bit. Watch the special featurette, and you'll see the director's intent was to have them all understand each other at least somewhat. It was evident he was picking up about as much as you were based on how he responded to her during their conversations, though.

[–] pennstatepenny 19 years ago

Thanks to all who have been answering my post. I really loved this movie and it's made me want to learn more about this part of the world. All of your comments have been very interesting and helpful! Thanks from a Northern Californian!!

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[–] danpuddick 18 years ago

hello, I'm writing my dissetation at uni on Sami people and the Swedish establishent. I used to live in northern Sweden, and although I was not actually in Lappland I knew many Sami.

When the film is set the term Lapp was used to refer to the people.
Lappland and lapp are terms that you won't find used by Sami about themselves unless explaining to foreigners or non sami who don't know what Sami means. They are the official terms in Swedish as well as equivilents in Norwegian and Finnish too. The Term lapp is rather derogative, and shouldn't really be used - but that's not to say it's not used by people still!

In Sweden there is a historical 'landskap' or region named Lappland, but really this has been replaced by newer administrative districts. In Norway there is the fylke (region) of Finnmark - a name which refers with an old name to the sami. In Finland Lapdland (swedish) or Lappi (Finnish)is the name of the northern most province of Finland.

The Sami term for their homeland is Sapmi. This of course stretches across northern fenno scandinavia into the kola penninsula, as well as further south into the mountanous region on the Norway Sweden border.

Of course the term Lapland is used internationaly to refer to the Area in the north of Scandinavia - but from what I've seen it seems to cause plenty of confusion so I thought I'd play teacher.

I think one of the basic points the film emphasises that is true to life in the north is the muticultural and mutilingual nature. In my area 400 km from Finland - finnish was common in the town. In the whole area you have norwiegen, finnish, sami (in several forms) russian (as far west as norway) , swedish, tornedalfinnsh (meänkieli), kvenfinnish (in norway). Not to mention Rom (gypsy) languages and sometimes indecipherable (for me) dialects.

Hope this helps a bit. I suggest anyone to visit the north - don't be put off by southern scandinavians complaining about the cold - it is the most amazing rewarding experience.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Tuononist 18 years ago

I must say that i enjoyed this film loads. It was a surprise. My uncle who is 78 recorded it off television and gave it to me. I have only seen it once so far, but will watch it loads of times eventually. It is conceptually, culturally and cinematographically impressive. I laughed loads, especially the bits where the the Finnish man keeps trying to explain to the Russian man that he is a pacifist student and not a fascist. The German army uniform did him no favours! LOL! I live in Birmingham, England but have travelled and worked in Finland for three weeks and loved it. I found the language indecipherable. The way words drastically change meaning with a different suffix or prefix and the different order/structure of sentences is very different to English and most other European languages. My girlfriend is working in Pori on the West coast of Finland at the moment. She is there for six months, so i shall visit her soon. I understand that Lappland is very different to Finland in many respects and really want to visit, especially this time of year, when it is cold and dark. I visited Pori, Turku, Kuopio, Tampere and Helsinki while I was there last September and it was slightly warmer than England, even though it is further North. i have never experienced temperatures below about -5 centigrade. It is -23 in Pori at this moment and that is much further South than Lappland. Any way, from my perspective, this film has given me a great desire to go to Lappland and meet more Sami people (I have already met one - Marja). It feels bvery humbling when travelling to non English speaking coutries as an English person because of the language. Everybody is so multilingual, unlike here in the UK. I noticed that many Finnish people speak better English than I do, but don't realise this, or give themselves credit.

Tally Ho - I'm off for a nice cuppa and some spiffing cricket.

[–] pennstatepenny 18 years ago

To max-myers: I adored this film. I also thought the Finnish man explaining being a pacifist was hilarious. You are so fortunate to get to travel there with work...have a great time.

One of the earlier posters noted that to call someone Lapp rather than the prefered Sami is somewhat of a derrogatory thing. I feel terrible about that. I'm thinking that maybe the subtitles or description of the story on the DVD box called her Lapp and not Sami. Because I would have never known that Lapp was a term at all. So I picked it up somewhere in the movie.

We can be so incredibly clueless here in the US...that it's embarassing at times.

So sorry to anyone who is Sami, and I will make sure to have it right from here on.

Bueller...Bueller...

[–] N-true 17 years ago

I also think it's Northern Sami, because the only Sami word I know ("water") was said a few times in the movie. It's "čáhci".
On the other hand, she is from a region in Finnland called Inari. As far as I know, they speak Inari Sami there... and "water" might be similar in this dialect/language.

[–] Radalan 18 years ago

To me lappland is north finland.

http://www2.te-keskus.fi/tekartat/Kartat/carigna/lappi.jpg

Lapland = lappi = north finland

[–] sushi-fish 18 years ago

I also love the film, it is possibly the best one I've ever seen! :)
I'm from Finland, and I've been to Lappland a few times, so the scenery in the film was IMO not so exotic. But hearing the Sami language was indeed something! I only know a few words in Northern Sami, but I was really surprised to find out that I could actually understand some parts of what she was saying in the film! I never knew Sami languages and Finnish have so much in common. :)
I've just go to buy the DVD some dat, now I've only got the film on VHS.

[–] 17 years ago

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