Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Paha maa (Frozen Land)
2005
**
Director: Aku Louhimies
Cast: Jasper Pääkkönen, Mikko Leppilampi, Pamela Tola, Petteri Summanen, Mikko Kouki

This miserablist Finnish drama is a filmed version of Murphy's Law "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong". The events are set in motion by a counterfeit bill which brings nothing but bad luck to everyone. The story offers losers, depressives, alcoholics and corpses, and relatively normal people who turn into one of the above before it's over. The characters move out of the frying pan and into the fire, and the earnest story offers no respite, so much so that the whole thing becomes almost comical. Inspired by Leo Tolstoy's novella The Forged Coupon.