It's a Long Road: Jalmari Helander on Sisu | Interviews

Of course, there was a lot of the problem of him not having a lot of dialogue and trying to explain everything through pictures. And that I need to be witty about how he survives and kills Nazis because I need to stand out from all the other action films in some kind of way. 

What was something you came up with that felt you were really doing something differently? 

The one I had most fun with was the idea of how to survive underwater. I was laughing a lot when I had that idea. 

How much research did you do into artillery, weapons, etc? 

Well, this is not like a documentary, so I basically didn’t do any [laughs]. I made them work for me rather than the other way around. 

Had you always wanted to do a World War II story like that? 

It’s not just WWII, of course, it helps to have Nazis in your film because they’re iconic bad guys, you can do what the f**k you want with them, and no one will care. So, that helps. But also doing it like an epic film where you have all those costumes and films and guns and old vehicles, when you have that place it looks like a film already when you are there, compared to doing a modern-day film in a city. It doesn’t look like anything before you build it somehow. 

And you wouldn’t want to do a film set in a city, or would you? 

It all depends on the story, but I think I am most home when I am in the middle of nowhere. 

I noticed your Patagonia jacket. 

Yeah. [laughs] 

So you’re an outdoors person. 

Well, I like to be in the forest. And I always start my day with a 12-kilometer hike in the forest; it helps me to deal with all the shit I’m dealing with. 

Does it help the writing process? 

Definitely. Most of the ideas come when I am walking somewhere, and almost never when I am writing.