The boisterous good humor of Jurmala (Mikk Mikiver), the nickel-mine owner, is, if anything, only barely dented by the raging battles in Finland before, during and after World War Two. In fact, everywhere he goes, he meets prospective customers on all sides of the conflict with his all-inclusive greeting "Friends, Comrades." Indeed, the resource he is wrenching from the earth's bowels is necessary to all forms of industrial activity, and is especially necessary for military applications. Thus, he has no reason to fear that he will ever run out of customers. This doesn't prevent him from using every possible means to entice them. At home, his relationship with his wife is not so prosperous, and they resort to some extraordinary means to try and keep on an even keel.
Directed by Matti Ijäs and written with Arto Meller, Räpsy & Dolly aka Paris Waits (1990) is a tragicomic love story of a petty criminal and a former cabaret dancer. Detective Karisto (Kari Väänänen) releases Auno "Räpsy" Pirilä (Matti Pellonpää) from prison, who in turn has to calve his childhood friend Börje (Pertti Sveholm) from criminal activities. Alcoholic Dolly (Raija Paalanen) takes Räpsy to live in Kallio, Helsinki, and hopes to move to Paris with her in the spring.
Writer and psychiatrist Oscar Parland (1912-1997) narrates this nostalgic story about his early childhood memories and fantasies. Five-year-old Riki spends the summer of 1917 at his cosmopolitan family's summer house by the Gulf of Finland. Surrounded by other children and eccentric adults who speak Swedish, German and Russian, Riki also encounters some fantastic animal characters no one else is able to see.
Finland late 1700s. After Katarina Thorwöst becomes a widow, there are many suitors, but her heart belongs to the fencing teacher lieutenant Carl-Magnus Schildt.
