Kätilö (Antti Jokinen, 2015)

It's 1944 in the very northernmost extremity of Finland on the coast of the Arctic Ocean and a young midwife struggles to bring new lives into the bleak world while the German army carries on systematically around her erasing the Russian populace in the lands they have conquered to the east of the border. Naturally, since this is a Finnish wartime film, she's as stoic as they come and the atmosphere is hopelessly grim. When she falls for a young half-Finnish SS officer, we might expect a glimmer of sunshine, but that is exactly what we get, deprecatingly, as a glint on a mirror that they play with in one scene.
The barren landscapes have to be counted as the star of Wildeye (lit. The Midwife, also known as Finland 1944) since they are imbued with more character than the cackling, rotten-toothed locals or identikit evil Nazis, and shot to impressive effect. The lead is a decent actress but is given little to project besides sullen resistance, the sporadic aerial bombardment scenes are technically ludicrous, and the romance is a sterile affair, much as the victims of the Germans are hardly fleshed out at all either. Add playing fast and loose with historical accuracy to all of this, while presenting it as gospel, and there isn't much of value left.

4/10