This is a really fine movie about asylum seekers in Finland which is apparently based on the writer-director's own experience. However even without the pervading tension/fear that dominates the film (the family is waiting to hear if its request for asylum will be granted) it would still be a very impressive coming-of-age story. The actor who plays Ramin, the young boy at the centre of the film, is Aran-Sina Keshvari and he is excellent, but the whole cast is tremendous. I saw this about a week before Helene and I was trying to place Laura Birn, who's the star of that film, and finally I got it - she has a small part in this as Ramin's teacher.
It's called Ensilumi in Finnish which means 'first snow', to my mind a better title than Any Day Now which puts focus on the family's wait for news of their status, rather than on their experiences in a new environment, though I am also intrigued by what is not mentioned in this film: not once is there an explanation of where they have come from or on what grounds they are seeking asylum, etc. That's actually fine, but does it make us as an audience start to regard them as 'everyfamily' or does it make us wonder why even more?
Note the first quote on the poster above which translates rather rattily via google translate as 'life-affirming First Snow is a star bead that radiates the warmth and light of the heart of domestic film autumn.' Of course what caught my eye was the word 'helmi' which I had not realised was not merely a name (the middle bit of 'Wilhelmina', which is why I chose Helmi as the best Finnish woman's name for a beloved cat) but also the Finnish word for 'bead' (or more commonly I think 'pearl'). 'Tähden' means 'at', 'for', or 'for the sake of', which is fine, but believe it or not 'tähden helmi' means 'star bead', which only leads me to wonder what the helmi a 'star bead' is. But it's 'all good'.
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