People in the Summer Night, a film by Valentin Vaala from 1948 based on the novel by F.E. Sillanpää (1934).

From the gradually waning twilight of a summer's evening right until dawn, the lives of the people of the district are woven together. In the film, during that single Finnish summer's night, people fall in love, have drunken fights, die and give birth.

The film was shot in Hauho in the Häme countryside, and the surrounding nature is a primary element in it. When planning the film, the writer Sillanpää stressed to Vaala that the work had only one man character, and that was the summer's night.

The nature shots give rhythm to the leisurely unfolding of events. In one scene, the gazes of the film's lovers, Arvid and Helga (Matti Oravisto and Eila Pehkonen) linger for a long time as they observe the wonders of nature. The roar of surging emotions is given visible form in the movements of nature, and the young couple's love begins to pulse to the beat of the awakening nature. In the summer idyll of the manor at Teliranta they experience the rising flames of love, while at the same time sighing: "Oh that time might stand still and remain where it is now."

In reality, the characters in the film are as important as the night. The very title of the novel reveals that fact. In the film we see figures typical of Finnish film, such as the wife of Syrjämäki Hilja (Emma Väänänen), who takes care of the farmhouse chores right up to the time she gives birth. The Syrjämäkis live through some exciting moments, with the cow sick and Hilja in the final stages of pregnancy. The industrious Hilja is the perfect woman for the sensitive, errant Syrjämäki-Jalmari (Eero Roine).

The female characters in the film are not helpless slips of girls, but capable women and upstanding homemakers. While Jalmari spends the entire summer night looking for a midwife and doctor, his wife brings a child into the world; a baby girl, of course. The film reveals the softer side of the men. On encountering his wife and new offspring at daybreak, Jalmari plants a tender kiss on his wife's brow.

Mettälä-Santra (Kaisu Leppänen) is waiting for her drunken husband Jukka (Matti Lehtelä) to come home. When nothing is heard from him, Santra ends up seeking refuge with the landlord farmer. Mettälä-Santra, who no longer expects much from life, and who has in practice raised her children alone, suddenly realizes that life might still have something left in store.

Valentin Vaala's film gives the wild character Nokia a bigger role than he plays in F.E. Sillanpää's novel. In the film he is the most tragic, and hence perhaps the most interesting, character. Nokia (Martti Katajisto), who in his impetuousness has grabbed a knife, is ultimately compelled to humble himself. At the end of the film, Nokia's rowdy days are over, even though summer morning is dawning once again, new and beautiful.

Source: Laine, Lukkarila, Seitajärvi: Valentin Vaala, SKS Helsinki