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the RAIVAAJA Bookstore for more of the best in:

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DVD's &  Videos






Mother of Mine
During World War II, more than 70,000 Finnish children were evacuated to neutral Sweden to avoid the conflict. "Mother of Mine," the latest from the Mother of Mine DVDaward-winning Klaus Haro ("Elina"), tackles that painful patch of history in a tale of 9-year-old Eero, a child who increasingly feels abandoned by his biological Finnish mother and yet not attached to his Swedish surrogate mom. When he is returned to Finland, his confusion intensifies.
Winner of Three Finnish Oscars
 111 minutes
$19.95

The Winter War  
(Talvisota)
Winter War

Directed by Pekka Parikka
The overwhelming Soviet army ceaselessly stormed tiny Finland's borders with massive artillery, a powerful air force and well-armed infantry for 105 days during the Soviet invasion of 1939-40. What gave the defenders of a small nation the strength to hold back an awesome enemy in the face of countless odds? The Winter War is the first film made about this epic struggle; recounting the war from the soldiers' point of view, letting us experience the brutality of daily life in the trenches. The screen play, based on Antti Tuuri's book Talvisota, is a dignified tribute to the tenacious Finnish heroes who preserved their coun try's independence.

BelIe & Blade Studios 125 mm. abridgment of the origi nal 1988 film.
In Finnish with English subtitles.
Available in both VHS and DVD video formats
            VHS and DVD $ 29.95
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Fire and Ice

   The Winter War of Finland and Russia

Fire and Ice DVD
Fire and Ice tells the story of the Winter War, the Soviet Union's invasion of Finland in November, 1939. The Soviets were convinced they could win the war in a matter of days. No one expected that tiny Finland could resist the highly mechanized Red Army, the largest military force in the world. And no one anticipated that 1939 would be one of the coldest winters in recorded history.

During 105 days of intensely bloody and brutal combat, Finland improvised a devastating and deadly defense, for an environment historians have called a frozen hell.

The Winter War changed the course of what would soon become World War II.

Produced, directed and written by Ben Strout
A MasterWorks Media Production
DVD Format only:  $20.00

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Letters from Karelia

  Father, Brother, Comrade, Spy

Letters from Karelia DVD or VHS
Taimi Pitkanen last saw her brother Aate (AH-tay) in a Leningrad railway station in 1931.  Taimi was returning to Canada from Moscow; Aate was headed for Soviet Karelia, on the border with Finland, where his skills in electricity and languages - both English and Finnish - were badly needed.  Aate never came back. Even when the dream went sour, Aate held on, writing home until, in 1941, Hitler attacked the USSR. After that, no one in Canada heard anything more of Aate Pitkanen.
Sixty years later, the discovery of his last letters - written but never mailed from a Finnish prisoner-of-war camp - reveals his fate and brings together Taimi and Alfred, the son Aate never met.

Visiting Taimi in Canada, Alfred Pitkanen learns the dramatic story of his father's Canadian family and of "Karelia Fever," the enthusiasm that gripped so many Finnish Canadians in the 1930s. Almost forgotten now, it lured thousands to a tragic fate in the Soviet Union.
Alfred follows his father's journey from Thunder Bay, Ontario, to Karelia, from young communist pioneer to ski champion of the USSR to Soviet spy.
With him we learn Aate's fate and the story of one of the great dreams of the twentieth century.

Directed and Edited by Kelly Saxberg
A National Film Board of Canada Production
Available in DVD or VHS format (please specify)   $29.00
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The People of Sointula
The People of Sointula

Their dream was to build a world of their own based on utopian ideals of equality, justice, and love. Led by a charismatic leader, a small group of Finnish immigrants fled into the wilderness of Canada to form their own society in the early 1900s.

Through hardship and adversity, they struggled only to see their commune eventually fail, but the dream lived on and evolved into a community that still thrives today. This is the story of the People of Sointula.
Produced by Karvonen Films, Ltd. in VHS format.
$21.95

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