Red Beast

10/4/2026

Warning: this movie is not easy to appreciate unless you are reasonably well versed in the darker chapters of Finnish history. The film assumes that the audience already knows the events, the political background, and at least some of the main characters. It explains remarkably little. In that sense, it does not really tell the story of Eetu Salin and the Finnish Civil War so much as build on a story it expects you to know. The film is constructed almost as a mixture of cinema and theatre, with deliberately sparse sets and a highly minimalist visual style. For this particular story, the approach works exceptionally well. But again, you need to know what lies behind what you are seeing. Much of the emotional weight comes from things that remain largely outside the frame: years of p