I have been thinking a lot about the film and would like to know what you think/understand of the end : who is the faceless man by the river? if all this is about sin, why kill the little girl? is it all a result of Nnutt/Erik encouter in the sauna?
For me until that scene the film made sense as a metaphor of Finland history/character personal history, but I don't know what to do of that last part...
The faceless guy at end killing the girl was the Russian soldier. He wanted to join the "cause" if you will.( That scene was beautifully filmed btw when he is killing the girl. Very creepy)
I think he killed her because it it showed that no matter what you do to try and get rid of your sin it will stay with you forever and it cant be fixed. I have no idea though.Lots of different theories.
It's been said that the faceless man is the Russian soldier but the "my beloved" line makes me think it was Knut, if not physically mentally. He was strangely attracted to young girls. The nurse mentioned something about darkness not retracting but twisting. I know we are lead to believe that Erik is the bad guy in this but I think Knut is the dangerous one. He probably killed that girl in the cellar, which is why he keeps seeing her everywhere and why Erik didn't bother to go get her. Erik killed people in war and it weighs on him so he's a not exactly a sociopath, who knows maybe the father did have an axe? He seemed surprised that Knut claimed not to see it.
This movie was good but kind of confusing. I don't think they gave us enough to truly understand what was happening. Or maybe you're just not supposed to understand. I don't know.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.