Figure 1.--This is another scene at the Suomisen family's summer home. The film was shot after the Winter War and released just before the Finn's lunched the Continuatiuin War.

'Suomisen Perhe' was the first film version of the long running radio show about a well off Finnish family (1938-58). This appears to have been the Finnish version of the Swedush radio series, 'Familjen Björck' which was first broadcast (1936). Based on the radio series, six films were made after the Winter War and during World War II (1941-45) and a final film (1959). The radio show and films have the feel of a German Heimat film. The first film was made just before the launch of the Continuation War (1941-44) -- Finland's failed attempt to regain the territory taken by Stalin in the Winter War. After 2 decades of peace, the country was again convulsed, this time by World War II beginning with the Soviet Winter War invasion (1939-40) and then the Finnish Continuation War. Right in the middle of the two wars, 'Suomisen Family' (1941) was produced. The film shows a family trying to return to normality. Three months after release of the film, Finland plunged into the Continuation War. Is the story of an upper-middle-class family from Helsinki in pring 1940, just after the end of the Winter War. It is set in their countryside house. The movie shows normal family activities and a some special events. We see the arrival of the grandmother and the children who have not had e a regular school year due to the War, the elder daughter preparing themself for university and who fell in love, the father having made poor financial investments. The families experiences seem minor compated to the huge dislocations and the child evacuees taken in mostly by Sweden as a resukt of the Winter War.

Created: March 23, 2003
Last updated: March 24, 2003