The 25-year war between Sweden-Finland and Russia is over
The new border between the 2 kingdoms
was assigned to be marked by 2 separate commissions
The first commission headed north
Their mission was to meet up with the other commission far north by the Kiertämä River
They never made it
Border Contract
can we be forgiven.
11 days earlier
73.
73, what?
He had a hidden ax.
This is what peacetime does.
Damned maid of the Russians. I'll kill him a second time.
He would have done away with you next.
People are coming from Kaatamo.
Let's head up to the top of the Valo fell.
Go to the beach and tell the men that we're leaving fast.
Knut!
I put her in the cellar.
I'll take care of it.
I'll let her out, damn it.
Go to the beach!
Once there lived a czar
who wanted to build a new capital.
His architect asked him
what construction materials to choose.
The czar said, "An eternal city should be made of gold".
The architect replied,
"The whole city of gold!? It's impossible".
The architect said,
"The best material would be
mud".
The czar was surprised.
"Oh, my God.
What is mud?"
The architect said that mud
is the trace of life.
It's a stamp
left by the life.
And our bodies
are made--
Are made
of it.
From the smallest
to the biggest one.
The czar was surprised and said
he had never heard of such a unique and wonderful material.
So the czar gave the permission to start building
the way the architect preferred.
So the architect started the construction.
What was the name of the city?
What city are you from?
- Ambush! - Quick!
There are so many Lithuanians in the north.
This is something worse.
- Let's move. - You gentlemen are early.
- Wasn't their hospitality satisfying? - Be quiet.
Are your peasants ready?
Landowner Ondrei Suurinen...
Do you swear by your poor soul...
Do you swear...
Come back.
...to give your soul as collateral for this border so the rulers of Sweden and Russia
can trust your oath?
I swear.
Let's move.
We have to stop at the edge of the Suuri swamp anyway.
Is somebody chasing you?
Home sickness. Don't you feel it?
He also hoped to find
a plant or an animal that could be named after him.
I promised to check his collection from today.
Don't get too close to Semenski. He is
more dangerous than he appears.
Russian tea.
Taste it.
There might be a position for me in Stockholm.
Are you mad?
Are you?
I took you here with me for nothing.
You will return to Sweden, despite everything.
If you want to get the professorate at the department of geography,
you have to have something new to show.
We're in the only corner of uncharted land in the whole country.
After this trip, I can present his majesty a map
which describes the whole large kingdom that God has placed under him.
The trip across the Suuri swamp will take about a day and a half.
Maybe 2 as we mark the border.
No one else draws such beautiful maps.
Captain Musko says that he has never seen a more beautiful map
than the one by the younger Mr. Spore.
We know that nobody lives in this swamp.
Could we write in the contract
that the border runs straight across?
We would just go around the swamp.
The Royal Commission has clear rules.
The border is to be marked verst by verst as the instructions state.
Does it matter around here?
If the Baron is in a hurry to get back to his estate to rot away,
should we just mark this piece of crap swamp for Sweden?
We can set the border to the east of the swamp.
Semenski understood that he has to
dirty up his fancy boots.
It works for us.
If Kaatamo wasn't on his coattails, they would follow the horses around the swamp.
Take the horses and equipment in advance to Päiväkivi.
We'll meet you in 2 days at the latest.
Come back.
Damn it.
I was like a fish in water everywhere
before you brought me those damn glasses from Stockholm.
You don't have to wear them.
Hindsight 20-20.
Gone is my former certainty.
If I wouldn't hear your voice, I couldn't tell if it was you.
It is me.
I wonder if she lives here with her dad by the 2 of them.
I wonder what happened to the mother.
What was on that shelf?
I don't remember.
People are excited now that the town has been delivered from the Russians.
We didn't suffer through the war for nothing.
Yes.
You do not remember,
but I just remembered what this house is.
Religion is a private matter,
but the interest of the state is not.
What else have you hidden other than your icons?
There is nothing left.
Erik, if you can't find anything special...
I know
the half-Karelian pricks
living in these backwoods and their ingratitude.
No, no!
Since 16 I fought this war that has now been ended as too terrible.
I swear to you, you piece of shit,
that your daughter would not be the most innocent patient I've delivered to the grave.
Where is your winter supply?
Is this it?
You're lying.
We will make a receipt for the overseer for the food that the commission confiscated.
If you have such rights as these, they were given by the devil in hell.
Check if you can find anything else.
One girl stays here.
You don't serve government officials food that even a butt wouldn't eat.
Forgive me, lords.
We're not lords.
Fortunately we know how to take ours.
The tour that brought me and my brother to your house has been a long one.
All the men are tired,
hungry
and waiting for it all to be over.
And far from home.
No one is as far from home as me.
Right.
Erik is in a very unpredictable mood.
You better stay here.
No.
No! Don't, no!
No, don't leave me here!
Come back!
You do not like the water.
You always carry a sword when you're close to it.
Nobody likes water.
You and your brother were born in Finland, right?
Have you ever seen this flower?
It's the sauna flower. Very common.
Fire also cleanses.
Almost anything.
What if hell is not a fiery furnace beneath the continents?
What if it's just an unclean place without the presence of God?
A time and place behind God's back?
Is your stomach upset?
- I'll be on my way. - No, wait.
Serioga.
It's getting dark.
Is that... a human standing there?
I can't see that far.
I saw the daughter,
I thin k.
She's following us secretly.
It's not possible.
What did she say when she got out?
Nothing. Forget about it.
It's no use mourning over such traitors.
We've been walking here for 2 days. Are we lost?
The compass does not lie.
Maybe you should have waged war a little longer.
- If you're not happy with the border... - Master Spore.
...it would have been fine with us.
You could have given up all of Russia to Sweden while you were at it.
You would have gotten a worship service
that doesn't resemble a cheap carnival as much.
Captain Musko.
Oh, he understands something.
He had eyes.
Scar tissue.
Look at the paws.
Why would any dog scratch his own eyes out?
The captain is frustrated.
He didn't get to prove his lack of masculinity in the war.
No fear.
You can get some homosexual action in peacetime, too.
All you need is the right company.
Allow me to remind you that my brother doesn't qualify.
Calm down!
Captain Spore.
Glasses almost make you look like a civilized person.
In reality you're an invalid,
who has lived far too long.
You are scared of peace,
because the end of war will take away the justification for the murders
that you have on your head.
If we continue along the river to the east,
we will reach Päiväkivi.
When I get home,
I will lock my door with my darling and won't open it for a week.
Even if God himself comes for a visit.
What happened to me?
Calm down! Calm down! Calm down!
Everything's fine.
Are you okay?
- What did you tell Musko? - I saw the girl.
- That girl, real close. - Knut.
- What did she say when you let her out? - They're hallucinations.
She's not the same girl.
I didn't return there.
I never let her out,
We must turn back and let the girl out.
We're almost there.
The Russians will hardly turn around.
When we get the horses at Päiväkivi, I'm going back.
Before you make that mistake,
pull yourself together.
Who built that? It's standing there all alone.
Glasses.
- Who runs things around here? - Dad.
Go get him.
We knew that the war still raged on in the south.
The war has been long.
It is over now.
We're the border commission of their majesties
emperor of Russia and king of Sweden.
What's the name of this place?
There is no knowledge of a village on the north side in any documents.
We are not
on the north side, we're in the middle.
Exactly in the middle of the swamp.
What's that?
A map.
You can see what the world looks like in the eyes of God.
How about that?
A border roll.
It contains the information of border villages and their tax collection.
Why?
So you can tell if you're Swedish or Russian.
- Is the world big? - There's plenty of it.
I've never been there, just here.
Boy, damn it.
To the wash.
- Who ordered them to be washed? - They're dirty.
Erik.
- Weird kid. - Not for this village.
Have you ever seen such clean peasants?
We can get some grub from here for the return trip.
I will not leave Pajari and his guys. This village is integral for the border.
- There will be new wars. - This filthy war was mine.
All its victims were useless,
if we give the Russians this area.
Bullshit. Drawing the border isn't about reclaiming victims.
You're dreaming about the provinces that were promised to us.
Damn it.
Semenski was right.
Damn it, I'm half blind.
I'm way too
old to practice
the only profession I know.
I want to be a better dad to my kids than my dad was to us.
I'm going to get land for my family.
This is my last chance.
73.
I've done worse than left a little girl in the cellar.
Not everybody has.
You can turn back right away.
Will you sign the border contract on my behalf?
Knut,
the first thing
that a soldier learns in the service of the king is to forget.
To forget?
You killed the girl's father.
I was defending my life and yours.
Did you see that ax?
No I didn't.
You've always been able to learn in peace.
Far away from all of this.
At the same time
here in your homeland, young man,
we've waged war starting every morning.
Now that you're finally here,
endure with me until the end with honor.
I promise that I will not allow anything bad to happen to you.
Ivan.
Semenski ordered to find you.
We got some food.
- Have the taxes been taken to Kajaani? - Or to Salaminsk?
Nobody has asked for them.
At least you're Christians.
Are you Lutheran or a part of the Church of Russia?
We have no priest.
We don't have a church so we don't have a priest who would have decided it.
Who does the sauna belong to?
- Who built it? - Screw the sauna.
Was it Sweden or Russia, damn it?
It might be quicker, if the lords would decide that matter.
You ordered us to write down the village's houses and population.
73 people.
It includes children, women,
the elderly,
everybody.
A huge amount of people.
Where are the other kids of the village?
I'm the only one.
Sit down.
Sit down!
If you can tell us how long this village has been here
and where you originally came from,
we will appoint you a border journeyman.
We will create a nomination letter.
It doesn't get more official than that.
I don't know.
But if the lord promises to take me with you when you leave...
Hell yes.
I know where there are such papers.
In there?
Go home so you won't get caught.
It's in Russian.
We should find out what it says.
Semenski must not find out about what we found.
Go get the village elder.
I couldn't find the village elder.
Whose stuff is this, Roukkula?
I haven't seen it before.
Are you there?
Let me out and I'll tell you.
It's getting late.
You'll hang in there through the night.
We didn't touch them.
Did the Russian monks build this poor village?
We found these dwellings in the middle of the swamp.
We met none of the dwellers, not then, not later.
All we found were empty cowls. They were piled up here and there.
Some thought that they had left their faith.
Some believe that someone took them.
Who is it
that people thin k took the monks?
Tell me.
Whisper, and you'll get out.
It's me.
Don't come too close.
It's hindsight.
Something bad will happen to us here,
- because you left the girl in the cellar. - Why did you lock her in there?
To protect her from you.
So it was me who lusted after that skinny,
breastless stick figure. Whoop-de-do.
You thought about how it would feel
to rape the hell out of a young girl like that.
That is the dirty truth, which the honored professor wanted to lock up in there.
Is it ever worth letting such a thought out of there?
Have you seen our girl?
So the boy is a girl?
She doesn't have much company her age.
She pretends to be a boy at times.
What the hell?
Semenski.
Captain?
She is perfect.
Save your souls.
We found this in our cabin.
Is there something in it? I don't know, it's in Russian.
I understand. I will tell you.
Since we can't figure this out, we decided that the border will go through the village.
The sauna will be an official border mark.
The coats of arms of the kingdoms will probably be put on the wall.
Come with me.
- Only the leaders. - Wait.
In the old village the guerillas from either side came,
robbed everything and did worse.
So you found peace in the heart of the swamp?
No. We found something else.
Since the day we moved here,
none of us have really dared to live
or die.
Our girl was born on the way here.
She's the last
child born in the village.
I still don't understand.
Superstition.
In Finland, newborns are bathed in the sauna.
Same thing with the deceased.
It's done to wash away the past
and old sins.
Roukkula dug out his eyes at home.
What for?
He had already chewed his tongue into small pieces.
Musko said that Rogosin used his wrist for an in k bottle.
What do these say?
Rogosin seems to thin k that he's been locked in a cellar.
Like a small child.
Rogosin drinks his own blood, because he's afraid.
What is he afraid of?
There's someone else in the cellar.
Rogosin fears that they will notice him.
That's it.
There used to be a monastery here that belonged
to the Russian Church.
It's more surprising
that the sauna might have been here before that.
The monks found it in the middle of the swamp and built the monastery next to it.
Something made them thin k that all sins could be forgiven in the sauna
without an apology
and without prayer.
A monk writes,
"Maybe it isn't a sauna.
It looks like one to us,
because we don't understand what it is."
Why are you afraid of it?
The sauna.
Those pieces of glass on your nose,
what's their purpose?
They help me see better.
The light refracts
like in the water.
That's what my brother said.
My little brother.
He's been the one glimmer of light in our family.
You have to take care of him then.
See, darkness doesn't refract,
it twists you.
Our family is small.
In my brother it would have had
a leader,
who would have been better suited for the work that remains in this country.
Or so I hoped.
Now I only ask that I could return him to Sweden in full health.
Could you do something to this?
Wounds will heal at the place where they happened.
You should just have returned.
Is it too late now?
His mother was from Karelia.
Just like my mom.
It's an obstacle for a career.
Small Ivan was only 10 years old
when he snitched on his own mother.
She became the first witch.
She was burned alive
on the square in Vyborg.
Ivan mostly cared about the state business.
Give me your best shot. Erik Antinpoika Spore is here.
I know how many you are.
I've counted every one of you.
I'm not that stupid!
On the last day I will be pulled into the abyss, but not yet.
I can save somebody, goddamn it!
Come on, all of you
at the same time!
I'm not like my brother.
I know what is fiction and what is real.
Where have you been?
I'll leave with you tomorrow.
Let's get the girl out of there.
I'll figure things out with Semenski
first thing in the morning.
But, Knut,
maybe it's already too late.
The exact amount of dead that I have on my conscience...
It could be that we have to count that poor girl in.
74.
Exactly.
Are you sitting on Semenski's plant collection?
The new samples were still moist.
I promised to sit on them for weight.
Well, tomorrow they'd better be ready, damn it.
Border Contract
I wish the border contract to be delivered to Päiväkivi as it stands
without scratching the parchment or altering anything.
Captain Spore.
We move on behalf of powers
that do not move at all.
Only occasionally they
let their borders be redrawn by blood, when they've gotten tired of the old ones.
Then on behalf of poor Rogosin.
- You speak about God, and you yourself... - No.
I'm speaking about Sweden and Russia.
It would be fairest if each party takes their share
of this horrible swamp.
But...
We happen to know that you've withheld a document concerning this village.
For that reason alone we've decided to write into the border contract
that this area belongs in its entirety
to you.
I believe that the state of Russia
is a lot greater without this area.
My brother keeps his signet ring in his luggage.
I'll bring what is needed, if I can't reach the man himself.
Knut.
75.
If the Swede doesn't come soon,
we'll leave without him.
There is an excerpt here that worries me.
The excerpt that I have not translated for the Swedish.
He writes that he is sorry he had no courage to kill us all.
Rogosin writes that tomorrow will be too late.
Tomorrow we'll see what God would not want to see.
Tomorrow?
Yes.
He wrote his will yesterday.
So tomorrow
means today.
Don't look.
Quiet, Vassily Yermolaevich.
You are like a father to me.
In this middle of nowhere you are my only family.
I am grateful for everything you did for me.
But the person with whom I want to spend eternity
asked me to do something I will always regret,
That's why we are standing here.
This is the highest price he can ask of me.
Can you talk?
Have you seen my brother?
He's not your brother anymore.
- It takes everyone with it. - Into the sauna?
Block the windows.
I'm writing in the border contract that the swamp belongs to Russia.
In the Russian copy it has been assigned to Sweden.
I don't want anyone to come here anymore.
The future has its back towards us.
Only what has been done can be faced eye to eye.
Only in that
can we be forgiven.
They're good.
Collect all the food you can find and put it in that backpack.
- There's food in here. - Good.
Find yourself warm clothing and pack it in.
But the lord is coming, as well?
I'm not a lord.
Keep heading towards the north.
Sooner or later you will find your way out of the swamp.
There's a river north of the swamp.
Follow the river to the east until you see a tall ridge.
You can see it from afar. It's called Päiväkivi.
There's people there. They're waiting. Give them the whole shit.
They will take you far from here.
Erik.
The purpose is
that you will get away from here.
That's why I can't come along.
I'll distract him.
My life can buy you some time.
It's a very good deal.
In the south,
go to St. Olaf's Castle.
Ask for the captain's wife.
Tell my wife that
you have been promised a seat next to the porridge cauldron.
And the name of Spore
for good reason.
Tell her that in your eyes
the last glance from her husband arrives home.
Keep heading north.
It's me.
Sit down.
No glasses.
- I can see clearly in here. - As it should be.
I want to show you something.
I... apologize to you.
- I want to see. - Erik.
Don't worry.
It's me.
Subtitles: Arigon
My beloved...