Best Finnish crime movies

Get ready to binge. We've found a collection of must-watch crime films from Finland, now streaming on Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Prime Video, and other top services!

  • Poster for Rendel

    Rendel 2017

    Rendel, a masked superhero, becomes blinded by his desire for revenge against a sinister criminal organization.

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  • Poster for Bordertown: The Mural Murders

    Bordertown: The Mural Murders 2021

    A mural painted with blood is found on the wall of Pasila train station, which depicts Finland's best-known serial killer Lasse Maasalo. The text in the mural, “Making the world a better place”, is linked to a voting circulating in social media, where people can vote for persons that world would be a better place without. Soon the first body is found and Sorjonen must find the person who has named himself as The Judge.

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  • Poster for Ariel

    Ariel 1988

    A Finnish man goes to the city to find a job after the mine where he worked is closed and his father commits suicide.

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  • Poster for I Hired a Contract Killer

    I Hired a Contract Killer 1990

    After losing his job and realizing that he is alone in the world, a businessman opts to voluntarily end his life. Lacking courage, he hires a contract killer to do the job. Then, while awaiting his demise, he meets a woman and promptly falls in love.

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  • Poster for Sound of Violence

    Sound of Violence 2021

    As a child, the brutal murder of her family made Alexis regain her hearing along with synesthetic abilities. Now as an adult, she finds solace in the sounds of bodily harm. But when she’s told she might lose her hearing again, she escalates her gruesome sound experiments in a quest to compose her masterpiece.

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  • Poster for Crime and Punishment

    Crime and Punishment 1983

    In Helsinki, an ex-law student turned slaughterhouse worker commits a senseless crime that catapults him into loneliness. Only a woman who accidentally arrived at the crime scene wants to follow him, but guilt and the tightening net of the police throw a shadow over their desperate love affair.

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  • Poster for Bad Boys: A True Story

    Bad Boys: A True Story 2003

    The story bases on four Finnish brothers, nicknamed 'the Eura Daltons' who received nation-wide notoriety for tearing gas pumps apart when they needed cash.

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  • Poster for The Tough Ones

    The Tough Ones 1999

    The Tough Ones tells a story of two friends who have a hard time finding their place in the society. Antti and Jussi are released from jail. While they were doing time for bank robbery, the third man involved in the robbery, the one who was not convicted, has become a policeman. He tries to help his friends to settle into the small town in Pohjanmaa, but the boys start a black market liquor business instead. The road seems to lead back to the jail.

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  • Poster for 8-Ball

    8-Ball 2013

    8-Ball tells the story of single mother Pike who, having just been released from prison, is trying to start her life anew. When her former boyfriend Lalli comes back from abroad, it opens a window into a past that Pike wants to put behind her.

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  • Poster for Vares: Private Eye

    Vares: Private Eye 2004

    On the trail of a woman, Vares finds himself caught up with underworld characters who are on the trail of hidden millions.

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  • Poster for Law of the Land

    Law of the Land 2017

    A retiring policeman gets caught up in between two younger men trying to kill each other. A modern borderline western taking place on both sides of the northern Finnish-Swedish border.

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  • Poster for Raid

    Raid 2003

    Raid is a mysterious drifter and ex-criminal who comes and goes as he pleases. He has been away from the country for an extended period of time but learns on his return that his ex-girlfriend Tarja has presumably died in a fire that he soon discovers was a larceny. He is also contacted by inspector Jansson, who he knows from the past regarding the murder of a protestor. Raid begins his investigation and soon finds that there's more to the cases than meets the eye.

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  • Poster for V2: Dead Angel

    V2: Dead Angel 2007

    The tough Detective Vares, get hired by a friend accused of murdering a girl. His job is to find the real killer, but people aren't talking. Before he can get traction another homicide takes place- and things move toward a dire conclusion.

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  • Poster for Inspector Palmu's Error

    Inspector Palmu's Error 1960

    A closed room mystery begins when an infamous tycoon is found dead in his bath tub. The famous police lieutenant Palmu is summoned to investigate.

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  • Poster for Hellsinki

    Hellsinki 2009

    In the mid-1960s, three small-time Finnish bootleggers seize control of their Helsinki neighborhood's black-market liquor business.

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  • Poster for Poliisin poika

    Poliisin poika 1998

    The petty criminal Trampas is released from prison and immediately starts planning new jobs with his girlfriend's simpleminded brother Lepsu. They are joined by Trampas's pregnant girlfriend and Jusse, a refugee from Rwanda, as a driver.

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  • Poster for Flowers of Evil

    Flowers of Evil 2016

    Unrest breaks out in eastern Helsinki as a Finnish family man gets hospitalized in the summer of 2015. Gangs of young people are burning down cars and public buildings, confronting the security guards and the riot police. The narrative goes backwards, towards the riots which mark the end of our movie. As the story begins, the unrest is still bubbling under, ready to explode any time. Vandalism and robbery are not uncommon in the suburbs; neither is violence towards the police and the security guards. Frustration, alienation, isolation and poverty corrode the asphalt surface of the multicultured society, otherwise relatively harmonious.

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  • Poster for Vares: The Kiss of Evil

    Vares: The Kiss of Evil 2011

    A young college student is found stabbed to death,and private detective Vares life takes an interesting turn when the girls family asks him to investigate the case.

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  • Poster for The Look of a Killer

    The Look of a Killer 2016

    Viktor Kärppä was forced involuntarily in the middle of Russia's internal power struggle. Soon bunch of assassins as well as Security Police are trying to catch Kärppä. Kärppä's family is also in great danger. In order to save themselves and their families they need to resort to Kärppäs friend, the police Korhonen , as well as his brother Aleksei.

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  • Poster for Emergency Call - A Murder Mystery

    Emergency Call - A Murder Mystery 2014

    A father of four children gets brutally stabbed several times, with the children present in the family home. During the brutal action, his wife – Anneli Auer – is on the phone to the emergency center. Emergency Call – A Murder Mystery is a documentary film tracking down the story that unfolds after the fatal night. We hear from all emerging sides as the prosecution builds its case against the mother of four. A behind the scenes look into one of the most bizarre unsolved court cases in recent Finnish history.

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  • Poster for Gas, Inspector Palmu!

    Gas, Inspector Palmu! 1961

    A rich widow is found dead in her apartment in Helsinki due to gas poisoning. The incident is initially thought to be an accident, but inspector Palmu notices that the murderer made a mistake, and so Palmu, Kokki and Virta begin the investigation: who had come to the apartment through the balcony door and opened the gas tap while Mrs. Skrof was asleep?

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  • Poster for The Hijack That Went South

    The Hijack That Went South 2013

    Aarno Lamminparras hijacked an airplane with a gun in 1978. A true story.

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  • Poster for Vares: Garter Snake

    Vares: Garter Snake 2011

    In the heat of the night, a man from faraway plays the piano. In the local hillside prison, a bitter double-crossed convict stares at the city life over the roofs. A revenge is brewing in his mind; the blood-thirsty killer prepares his escape. Vares gets a client who needs private investigations. Despite the beautiful wife, Vares smells a rat... In the middle of the summer night, a shot rings out. One life comes to an end and Vares finds changes in his assignment. The clues lead him to first-hand encounters and second-hand bookshops; a visit to the gym reveals a drug-smuggling route from Stockholm... Vares finds himself entangled in hot money and cool silk. In the background slithers a cunning garter snake.

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  • Poster for Vares: The Sheriff

    Vares: The Sheriff 2015

    Jussi Vares find two bodies of Turku outskirts of women, which has been shot in the head, and the man whose body is full of runes similar to the cuts, which suggest that the murder would have been part of the dark ritual. A year later, Vares is hired to investigate these homicides. Cable Wires take Varesta towards Turku underworld dominant invisible godfather, sheriff. Sheriff is the man whom nobody knows and we do not discuss. Vares drifts dangerously close to the "jury", the secret underworld lord clubs, the members of the human spirit is a cheap commodity. Rummaging through the case Vares get too close to the truth.

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  • Poster for Tähdet kertovat, komisario Palmu

    Tähdet kertovat, komisario Palmu 1962

    A man's body is found on Tähtitorninmäki in Helsinki. Palmu starts to investigate the case, but the scandalous newspaper story causes problems for the police.

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  • Poster for Helsinki Napoli All Night Long

    Helsinki Napoli All Night Long 1987

    Alex is a Finnish taxi driver in Berlin. One evening pits two men feel comfortable in his taxi with a briefcase full of money, but unfortunately for Alex's money stolen and a group of gangsters are at the nape of the two. Soon it comes to shooting, and when the two men being killed, is good advice costly for the beleaguered driver.

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  • Poster for The Worthless

    The Worthless 1982

    Manne, Harri, and Ville Alfa are rootless twenty-somethings in search of purpose for their banal lives. After Manne steals a priceless painting from a group of petty criminals, Manne and Harri flee from the gangsters across Finland, while Ville goes to Paris. On the road they meet Veera, an old girlfriend of Harri's, and try to avoid the gangsters in pursuit.

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  • Poster for Vares: The Girls of April

    Vares: The Girls of April 2011

    Tough Finnish detective Jussi Vares gets hired by a friend at a newspaper to investigate a 15 year old mystery regarding the disappearance of 3 girls.

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  • Poster for Legend of the Lake Bodom

    Legend of the Lake Bodom 2006

    The Legend of Bodom is a figment of the imagination, but it takes place in a land that once existed - between East and West, on the front lines of the Cold War. It is Pentecost morning in 1960. Three young people are found murdered on the shores of Lake Bodom.

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  • Poster for Vares: The Path of the Righteous Men

    Vares: The Path of the Righteous Men 2012

    The body of a young woman whose heart has been ripped out of her chest is found in a remote are in Finland. The finder of the body, a dismissed pastor, hires private investigator Jussi Vares to investigate the crime. Vares uncovers a criminal ring involved in extortion, religious scams, exploitation of minors and stock market speculation.

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  • Poster for Routa

    Routa 2024

    A man is released from prison after 22 years. He tries to live a simple life as a farmer. At the same time, a company director is fighting a hostile takeover from a bigger corporation. Two different kind of journeys collide in sudden ways.

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  • Poster for Me and Morrison

    Me and Morrison 2001

    A bittersweet tale of a love affair between two people whose lives seem to have lost all direction. The female lead, Milla, is drifting aimlessly through life until she meets Aki. They fall in love - but happiness in a relationship shadowed by crime and drugs is not necessarily a given. The movie is based on the novel Minä ja Morrison by first-time author Kata Kärkkäinen

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  • Poster for Insiders

    Insiders 1989

    An afternoon newspaper reporter's tape recorder picks up sensitive information while he is working on a story about so-called yuppie culture. The picture shows the symbols of yuppie life, from muscle boats and convertibles to Mobira Cityman 900 mobile phones. However, a murder within the inner circle brings the superficial world of money and sex to a halt.

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  • Poster for Vares: Tango of Darkness

    Vares: Tango of Darkness 2012

    The tango king Harry Koivikko was found dead six years ago in a sleazebag motel, with a knife is his back. The biggest manhunt in the county faded away without results. Jussi Vares gets a phone call from a down-and-out journalist; the informant tells Vares he knows the murderer. Then the journalist disappears without a trace and Vares has to face the biggest challenge of his career. To add insult to the injury, an old acquaintance Veikko Hopea gets his first prison furlough…

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  • Poster for Bad Luck Love

    Bad Luck Love 2000

    A shocking crime forces a man to re-evaluate his life, only to find that going straight is more complicated than he imagined. Ali is a low-level criminal who spends much of his spare time working out at a gym with his brother Pulu. Ali spends most of his day stoned on marijuana, while Pulu is known to drink cleaning products when he's run out of booze. Ali has fallen in love with Inka, a bright woman with a mind of her own, and her independent nature occasionally throws him into a fit of jealousy.

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  • Paksunahka 1958

    A man dreaming of becoming a private detective gets suck into an investigation of a crime involving the theft of a secret chemical formula.

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  • Poster for Vodkaa, komisario Palmu

    Vodkaa, komisario Palmu 1969

    A TV reporter is murdered when he is eavesdropping on a secret Finnish-Soviet conference. The National Broadcasting Corporation enlists the help of police lieutenant Palmu, who comes out of retirement for this case. However, some have their doubts about the loyalities of Palmu, seeing that he was spotted in a diplomatic soiree in Moscow just a few weeks before the murder.

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  • Poster for Men Can't Be Raped

    Men Can't Be Raped 1978

    A woman who has been raped by a man at a party plots and executes an elaborate and humiliating revenge.

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  • Poster for The Clan: Tale of the Frogs

    The Clan: Tale of the Frogs 1984

    Young Alex Sammakko has seen his brothers defy the law in a series of deeds that first land them in jail, and then, after they escape and return to their rural home, land them back in the lap of their locally notorious family. Alex wants nothing to do with them. He is in love with Mirja, whose family is not that different from the Sammakko's, but who shares Alex's viewpoints and feelings. Not helping matters is a police department convinced that all Sammakkos are bad, and the family itself, pressuring Alex to follow in their murky footsteps.

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  • Poster for Vares: Gambling Chip

    Vares: Gambling Chip 2012

    Jussi Vares falls in love with a beautiful brunette - only to lose her in a horrible way. After dating Sole a few weeks, her body is found in a bird-watching tower. The investigations come to a standstill, until Vares promises to solve a mystery of messy denunciation letters. Before the letters reveal their secret, a lot of things happen. A gun-for-hire, Stahanov, gets an assignment. Sole's brother finds his wife in the arms of a wrong man and goes on a rampage, accompanied by a black cat. In the end the clues lead to a familiar person and more death in unavoidable

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  • Poster for Farewell, Mr. President

    Farewell, Mr. President 1987

    Asko Mertanen is a waiter who is very interested in shooting. He gets fed up how the things are run in Finland, so he thinks that the best way to change them is to shoot the Finnish president.

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  • Poster for Blue Corner

    Blue Corner 2002

    Dreams perimeter Matti Ijäksen has written and directed, praised to the skies domestic film, which is in addition to starring always convincing trace Knocking Petteri Summanen and Sulevi Peltola. It is therefore goes without saying that expectations were high in its case. But how it happened? Dreams own peripheral clearly some form of casing, which does not let therein, but hits the deck of the cut made without the kehääkin - Joint events yhteenparsimisen means.

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  • Poster for Anita

    Anita 1994

    Crime caper involving two con artists who team up to pull off a super scam. Complications arise when the female member of the team falls in love with the male partner, who is mainly interested in the money.

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  • Poster for Hit Big

    Hit Big 2022

    Marjaleena, Miss Finland's 2nd princess from decades ago, runs a bar on the Spanish sunny coast with her son Vili and her retired sidekick Mikko. Their carefree lives are cut short when the trio learns that Marjaleena's ex-husband Mato is about to be released from prison after a long sentence. Mato plans to retire to the sunshine coast to enjoy the spoils of robbery with his new lover and drive Marjaleena, Mikko and Vili out of their bar. But that's no good for the betrayed trio, who want their share of the millions.

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  • Poster for What Became of Us

    What Became of Us 2009

    Have you ever wondered how your old schoolmates are? Perhaps the guy next to you, who is doing time in jail at the moment, still thinks you are his best and only friend. Perhaps your first crush might've been interested in you all these years but was too afraid to tell you that. Perhaps, if it were not too late already, the bullied one would've done everything differently.

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  • Poster for Carnage

    Carnage 2024

    When an underground marketplace of illegal activities is besieged by an army of bloodthirsty assassins, a ragtag group of criminals must band together to fight for survival.

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  • Poster for Rosso

    Rosso 1985

    Giancarlo Rosso, a professional assassin from Sicily, is sent to Finland to kill a very specific target. When he reaches the country, he discovers that the target is one of his past loves.

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  • Poster for Liian iso keikka

    Liian iso keikka 1986

    Nikolai Savitsenko, aka Nig, runs Crimes for You Ltd, whose other employees are Hikka, Pete and Nig's little sister Mandi. While they are planning the heist of the century, robbing a bank's cash transport vehicle, the gang continues with their usual scams. They divert parking fines to the wrong account, one belonging to Inspector Koistinen, arrange a pre-arranged lottery line by bribing the authorities, and break into a political party's secret office to blow up the safe. Inspector Koistinen is in a tight spot. To make matters worse, he is assigned a new partner, Eevariita, who soon figures out that the same gang is behind all the scams.

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  • Poster for Kummeli esittää: Kontio & Parmas

    Kummeli esittää: Kontio & Parmas 2022

    Senior officer Otso Kontio has finally hung up his gun and badge and is spending his peaceful retiment days at his cabin. The peace is broken when his old partner Auni Parmas brings news about the destruction threatening the municipality of Valkeakoski.

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  • Poster for Silmät hämärässä

    Silmät hämärässä 1952

    A mad writer checks into a hotel. In the window of a opposite building he sees four men and starts to write their life story. Every man is an anonymous person who have done or experienced something irreversible in his life. They end up together to plan a heist.

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  • Poster for Yön saalistajat

    Yön saalistajat 1984

    A small gang of criminals is planning to commit a gold heist not knowing that the new member of their gang is actually a police detective. But when his true identity is revealed to the gang they act like they wouldn't know about it and decide to use the detective to accomplish their plans about the heist.

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  • Poster for Punasii päin

    Punasii päin 2018

    The Finnish rap film Punasii päin draws inspiration from street art, particularly the Stop Graffiti project, which sees the film's main characters, graffiti artists Henri and Joonas, become uneducated and unemployed, burdened with disproportionate debt as punishment for painting on walls. Helsinki, the last bastion of prohibition, offers the marginalized a job as a drug dealer. The film features a significant number of Finnish rap artists and their provocative underground songs.

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  • Poster for Esa ja Vesa – auringonlaskun ratsastajat

    Esa ja Vesa – auringonlaskun ratsastajat 1994

    Computer professional Vesa Rajala rushes to home from a work trip because his wife Sanna is leaving for Greece with her new lover, Georgios from next door.

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  • Poster for Radio tekee murron

    Radio tekee murron 1951

    Eager young radio reporter Teräsvuori stages a one-man burglary into the Helsinki Art Museum, recorded on tape for a later broadcast by his friend Laakso. Things go awry when a gang of real criminals overhear their plans and book their heist to coincide. Teräsvuori gets caught but escapes from police custody to start his private investigations together with female radio colleague Eila.

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  • Poster for Taas tyttö kadoksissa!

    Taas tyttö kadoksissa! 1957

    Police chief Olavi, health nurse Liisa Niemi and photo reporter Takola are investigating the disappearance of a local girl.

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  • Poster for Romanovin kivet

    Romanovin kivet 1993

    This action packed Finnish thriller tells the tale of two friends who get their revenge against the millionaire who double-crossed them. Patrick and Tony are hired by the wealthy gambler to steal the priceless Romanov stones, Russian jewels. They do it, but almost lose their lives when he double-crosses them. They turn around and get revenge, his money, his wife, and his daughter.

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  • Poster for Yhden yön hinta

    Yhden yön hinta 1952

    The streets of Helsinki, Finland, at night. Violence mixed with incidents and everyday life. Reported by police officers on the graveyard shift.

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  • Poster for Pontevat pommaripojat

    Pontevat pommaripojat 1948

    Poke and Pena, two private investigators in debt, see an advertisement in the newspaper about Dr. Peltonen's disappearance and the promised reward for finding him. The boys retreat to investigate the case in a house they have rented in the countryside, which happens to be next door to the criminal gang that kidnapped the doctor. The gang's boss, 'Synkkä' (Gloomy), and his sister, 'Kaunotar' (Beauty), try to distract the boys by hiring them to guard their villa.

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  • Poster for Geography of Fear

    Geography of Fear 2000

    When her sister is mugged and raped, Oili, a young female forensic dentist, meets a group of abused women who have taken matters to their own hands to make the living in fear and just letting it happen stop.

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  • Poster for Rikos & rakkaus

    Rikos & rakkaus 1999

    In a comedy set in Rovaniemi, the parish’s housekeeper Kristiina Pahka falls in love with Marsipaani Räikkonen, even though he knows that the man is a petty criminal. Under the leadership of hard-hitting Inspector Rautapää, the city’s police force will have to investigate many kinds of crimes, of which Marsipaani’s close friends know one or another.

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  • Poster for Ursula

    Ursula 1986

    18-year-old Ursula wants to be an adult, but Mårten and Harri, both in their thirties, do not. Ursula ends up becoming a drug courier for the men.

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  • Poster for The South

    The South 2000

    A comedy of crime, romance and deception played out against the background of a vacation under the Mediterranean sun.

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  • Poster for Game Over

    Game Over 2005

    A movie inspired by a true crime - the coldblooded Heino double murder, committed by a group of teenagers - that shocked Finland in 2001.

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  • Poster for Koskinen

    Koskinen 2022

    In the middle of the summer holidays, the body of a drowned man with ligature marks on his wrists is recovered from Tammerkoski river. The investigation by Koskinen's team is further strained by the hit-and-run case of a dubious music manager and the mysterious Carl Friedrich. When a new body is found in Lake Näsijärvi, the connection between the victims is made clear.

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  • Poster for Dolly and Her Lover

    Dolly and Her Lover 1990

    Detective Karisto releases Auno 'Räpsy' Pirilä from prison, who in turn has to calve his childhood friend Börje from criminal activities. Alcoholic Dolly takes Räpsy to live in Kallio, Helsinki, and hopes to move to Paris with her in the spring.

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  • Poster for Kuollut mies kummittelee

    Kuollut mies kummittelee 1952

    Sarmo explores the mystery associated with the murder of a landowner and the tangle of crimes, threats, and conspiracies created by a letter he left behind. At the same time Sarmo helps the consuls of imaginary small states of South America in a difficult situation, and charms their daughters.

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