The Missile
From writer/director Miia Tervo (Aurora, SIFF 2019) comes this bone-dry comedy about a single mother who unwittingly becomes part of a history she doesn’t want when an errant Soviet missile lands outside of her small Finnish town.
On the way to her sister’s wedding in 1984, Niina (Oona Airola) hears a loud boom reverberating across the frigid skies over her home in Finland’s subarctic Lapland region. Niina, a divorced, frequently overwhelmed mother of two, is baffled that her eccentric family seems too self-absorbed to notice the incident. Despite having no training beyond writing “poems about ponies” in school, Niina launches a one-woman investigation into the mystery at a sleepy local newspaper, interviewing every quirky character in town. The tension escalates when a contingent of scowling Finnish military brass descends on the local hotel. Looking for leads, Niina strikes up a relationship with a handsome Finnish Air Force pilot who witnessed the incident, hinting that an errant Soviet nuclear cruise missile may be involved. Meanwhile, Niina must confront the return of her volatile ex-husband, recently released from jail for assault and looking to force his way back into her life. Drenched in ’80s kitsch, full of poodle-perms, mullets from hell, and synth-powered Europop, The Missile, based loosely on a real geopolitical incident, is part absurdist comedy, part Cold War thriller, and part harrowing domestic-abuse drama, asking whether it’s possible to fully comprehend danger lurking under the surface before it’s too late.
—Randy Woods
- Original Language Title: Ohjus
- Director: Miia Tervo
- Principal Cast: Oona Airola, Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Tommi Korpela, Pyry Kähkönen
- Premiere Status: North American
- Country: Finland, Estonia
- Year: 2024
- Running Time: 114 min.
- Producer: Kaisla Viitala, Daniel Kuitunen
- Screenplay: Miia Tervo
- Cinematographers: Meelis Veeremets
- Editors: Antti Reikko
- Music: Laura Naukkarinen
- Website: Official Film Website
- Filmography: Aurora (2019)
- Language: Finnish
- Has Subtitles: Yes
- International Sales: Picture Tree International