by MARK SLUTSKY

Only three characters share the screen for the bulk of The Cuckoo, a new film by Russian director Alexander Rogozhkin. One's Finnish, one's Sami (a native Laplander) and the other is Russian, and they have no language in common. How they understand - and misunderstand - each other is the focus of this beautifully shot and good-hearted movie, which has a pacifist bent reminiscent of Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion.

The movie takes place in Finland in '44, just before the country pulled out of the war and its allegiance with Nazi Germany. Veiko (Ville Haapasalo) is a Finnish soldier and former student. For a reason that is never made clear, but suggested later by his pacifist leanings, he's being punished by his former comrades. Made to wear a German uniform, and chained to a rock with a sniper rifle and some meagre supplies, he's very likely to end up being shot when the Russians arrive.

Through some ingenuity, though, he manages to escape, and as the Russians roll in we meet Ivan (Viktor Bychkov), a Russian officer accused of treason. Ivan is being transported to his court martial and likely execution when the van carrying him is bombed. The only survivor, and badly injured, he's rescued by the beautiful young Anni (Anni-Kristiina Juuso), a solitary Sami woman who's been alone for four years since her husband was taken away and forced to join the army. Haapasalo eventually shows up at Juuso's homestead too, and an unusual drama plays out between these three characters, none of whom can communicate verbally.

Yet they do communicate in a fashion, regardless of their intense differences, which I suppose is what Rogozhkin is getting at. By the movie's end we know a lot more about them - Haapasalo's studies, Bychkov's poetry, Juuso's culture - largely because they talk about themselves a lot, in a way that begins to seem overly stagey. Regardless, though, there's something very likeable about this movie, with its beautiful cinematography, drawn-out opening (it takes about 45 minutes for Haapasalo to escape that rock, and I didn't mind a bit), and gentle approach.

The Cuckoo opens Friday, Sept. 5 at the Cinéma du Parc

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