Good concept, poorly executed.

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Beautiful, moving film.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

What a movie. The first thing that came to my mind when the end credits started rolling over a gorgeous waterscape was how beautifully the film justifies it's title and lives up to it, capturing all of the Finnish rural life in all its majestic scope and gory details. The movie unfolds in a poetic manner, weaving a really melancholic and sinful song in its course, and laying bare the intricacies of Lapp (indigenous people of Lapland) lives and the most carnal of human behaviors. The village life is portrayed with utter honesty and is so brutally natural in its narrative that it will surely grip you and exert an air of morbidity mixed with beauty. Disbelieving, you will watch their lives and realize that deep inside, you too are like them, ruled by instincts, and whilst they acted as they felt, we, the modern men, devise new ways to achieve the same through deception and slime. Even if each character has morals that won't match up to our (fake) standards, you, as a viewer cannot help but admire the toughness and gut in their lives. Conservatism versus Desires leads to a fate that is bleak but yet optimist and stoic and cyclical in its anti-climax. The story revolves around Martta, a promiscuous girl in love with a womanizing herdsman, and how their love ripples through a family. The Padre, an intentional insertion by the director, does not fail to burn the imagination as he delivers fear unto the villagers with his poisonous and twisted sermons, and drives them into an orgy to purge sins. The movie always tries to explore contradictions and honestly speaking, what is life without contradictions? In giving no answers and taking no sides, Mollberg is able to capture life in its magnificence, and create a reflective and awesome movie experience. Totally recommended. Truly an allegorical film and a microcosmic representation of humanity under the sheen.

Simply superb movie by late Rauni Molberg based on book of same name by Timo K. Mukka. Story set on poor rural region in western Lapland some years after Continuation War. Especially dialog is on level of its own and this film uses not so well know local dialect of border region between Finland and Sweden in Lapland. This movie has caused fair share of controversies be chose it show how the things really were during time (and quite some time after that) and place it depicts. Upon its 1974 release, it was the most widely attended film in Finnish film history. I can not comprehend why master piece like this is on limited distribution by Finnish National film Board. One can only hope that now when esteemed Mr Molberg has passed on his master piece can finally receive wider distribution

Maa on syntinen laulu (The Earth is a Sinful Song) is an earthy tale about a girl living in a peasant community in northern Finland before the Second World War. The film depicts without flinching the utter destitution and squalor of the life of the rural poor before the advent of modern times reached this remote area. So much so, in fact, that modern day Finns of the mobile phone generation do not recognize themselves at all in the story and tend to reject it. They cannot imagine that this was actually how their grand parents (may have) lived.The protagonists in this tragic tale are mostly ugly, dirty and unshaven (including the women) and of questionable morals. The interaction is rough and at times violent, especially against animals. The only escape the people have from their abject poverty is religious zeal, liquor and sex (sometimes consumed in combination). All in all it is not an easy film to digest, but as a document of life in the olden days it stands firm.

I'm hoping to get some information on how to buy/rent this excellent Finnish film (or video version-VHS). I have seen it, and sent my mother, and several other second generation Finns to see it when it was shown many years ago in the USA. (Finnish w/ English subtitles) They were amazed at how "familiar" the characters and events portrayed were to their own transplanted experience. Even the dialect was understandable, and they suddenly realized that they didn't need to read the subtitles for their "native tongue". It's particularly important that such films be made available to these fast disappearing immigrant "niches" in the USA. There is a growing awareness,among the descendents of these immigrant cultures, of the loss of an important identity that belies all of the American myths of "the melting pot". Films such as Rauni Mollberg's "Maa on syntinen laulu" (The Earth Is a Sinful Song) (1973) would, I'm sure become a vital part of this "reparation movement"-- much as the Kalevala Epic did for the Finnish national identity. The Finns who immigrated to America instilled a passionate pride in their offspring, which deserves the kind of nourishment that Mollberg's film can provide. Can anyone help me find out how it can be brought back to our "Finn Village"? Thanks (Kiitos)