A gentle revisionist western shot in Lapland landscapes criticizing capitalism and toxic masculinity
Cold snowy Lapland. A lad named Rupi is torn between working in a mine for the odious Kari, who hooked everyone in the district on drugs and alcohol and helping his father, a reindeer herder, whose life has been poisoned by giant corporations. Things only get worse when the hero tries to win the heart of the beautiful Riitta - not only she is married to a hopeless loser rocker, but also became the number one target for Rupi’s lustful boss. Things are heating up, more and more a love story resembles an extravagant thriller, and a young miner will need to make a choice of his whole life. In 2021, Estonia nominated “The Last Ones” for the Academy Award in the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category. Although the picture did not make it to the shortlist, it is not hard to guess why the choice of the local Oscars committee fell on it. Not only this is a tender and incredibly beautiful love story filmed against the backdrop of Lapland landscapes, but also a western (except for the action unfolds not in the Wild West, but the dazzlingly snow-white North) about how closely toxic masculinity and the capitalist system are connected. “The Last Ones” has absorbed all the local color, but at the same time remained a universally understandable genre cinema, where the soundtrack mixes the synthesizers of the legendary Soviet and Estonian composer Sven Grünberg with the hits of Bob Dylan and John Lennon.
Original language: Finnish Subtitles: Russian | English