Käpy selän alla (1966) User Reviews

Youth in the woods

[Petey-10 · 9/10 · 8 May 2009]

Four city youngsters, two girls and two boys go camping in the country.They explore themselves and their sexuality in the woods.The great director Mikko Niskanen is behind Käpy selän alla (1966).The four main actors were pretty much of new comers in the movie world, but boy are they good! And they had to improvise much of the movie.Eero Melasniemi is in his debut playing Santtu.His wife Kristiina Halkola plays Riitta, student of Economic Sciences.Pekka Autiovuori plays the most comical character, Timo "Timppa", medic.Kirsti Wallasvaara is in her debut movie playing Leena, student of Psychology.Jukka Sipilä, who sadly passed away nearly five years ago, plays Janne Lauhanen.The legendary actress Anneli Sauli is Guest Star, playing herself and she also gets to sing on stage.Kari Franck is seen as Boy in the dance hall.You also have some terrific amateur actors in the movie, like Alma and Kasperi Manninen plus their son Pentti.Director Niskanen appears there as Man in the dance hall.There are some interesting musicians playing and singing in the Creatures band, who became pretty big later.There's Remu Aaltonen there, who became known from the band Hurriganes.Then there's the 16-year old Kirka, who we sadly lost two years ago at the age of 56.Behind the great music were Kaj Chydenius and Otto Donner.Also I must mention the wonderful editing by Juho Gartz.The movie won six Jussi awards.It's lovely to watch these summer images, like the beautiful Kirsti lying on the rocks.It's a nice moment when Timppa sings "Kallavesj".And the reminiscing part on how Santtu and Timppa met, is great and funny.One legendary moment is when they come from the dance hall and Riitta goes dancing topless in the lake.After this movie they showed all the four main actors interviewed by Jarmo Heikkinen.They're all pretty much older now, and they all have fond memories of the movie.