Sisu is the first feature film to be made about Tom Sukanen, the legendary Saskatchewan pioneer who built a steam ship on the prairie during the Depression. This is an entirely new telling of his life story by writer/director Chrystene Ells, based on intensive research and interviews with people who knew him. The film features both live action and a variety of animation and effects, with music, poetry and imagery from the Finnish epic,
The Kalevala, layered over this fascinating and strange true story, played out against a backdrop of early 20th century Canadian prairie culture.
Sisu is a Finnish word with no direct English translation, which describes a trait that is highly regarded both among Finns and the people of the Canadian prairies. This single simple word translates roughly as a belief in never giving up, in tenacity of purpose, in steadfastness against all odds, and in courage even in the face of death.
'Sisu' logo by Kevin Dowler
6 comments:
The storyboards we looked at today were truly wonderful. Will you be posting some of them on this site?
Hello from Finland!
I have been looking around the internet information about the ship before, once I first found it in GoogleEarth some 3 years ago. I got interested about Tom since my dad told the story. I am related to Tom Sukanen, he was my father's aunt's husband. And now that someone is making a movie about him, my father is even more excited! This is so awesome.
We definitely want to see Sisu the movie!
Will there be a show in Finland?
It was a mere chance that I found out about this movie trough my friend who is now visiting Regina. I asked her to check the ship and take a photo for me. And she just met by accident some people who knew this movie and gave this web-address.
Now I am sitting here with my dad and we are thinking of traveling to Saskatchewan some day! He keeps in contact with other distant relatives around.
Many Greetings from Finland and all good for the movie! I wish it will succeed. we'll be reading this blog carefully! Thank you :)
-Marianne Rintala-
I was always told growing up that "sisu" meant "guts" as in "having guts", kind of slang for courage and tenacity.
Yes, right, exactly. Try an internet search for the English translation of 'sisu' and you'll find all of these meanings, from 'having guts' to 'courage even in the face of death'.
the Movie is set to Premier tonight in Regina but will also be realised in a few weaks in san Fransisco, And will probably be shown on the History channel, and they're calling the movie sisu because you would have to have gut's to build a ship in the praire's to get home to england.
your almost right james but it's going to air in october on SCN and he wasn't trying to get home to england, it was Finland
Post a Comment