A flawed but compelling psychodrama set in Europe's wild north.
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Estonian director Veiko Ounpuu scores his third shot at the Academy Awards with this gritty “Nordic Western” set against the wintry majesty of Lapland.
The landscape may be frozen but emotions run red hot in
The Last Ones, Estonia's official Oscar submission in the Best International Film category. Centered around a remote mining community in Finnish Lapland, deep inside the Arctic Circle, writer-director Veiko Ounpuu's bleak depiction of dead-end lives and desperate choices combines serious intentions, arresting visuals and gritty performances from a mostly Finnish cast. Despite some tonal wobbles in its latter stages, it paints a mostly compelling picture of raw-knuckled blue-collar existence in one of Europe's last remaining wilderness zones. This is Ounpuu's third Academy Awards contender, following