Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment No. 6 is a warming and unexpected tale of adventure, drinking and romance on a long-distance train journey to Northern Russia.
Laura (Seidi Haarla) is a Finnish archaeology student studying in Moscow. Her lecturer – and lover – encourages her to take a trip to Murmansk, to view ancient Petroglyphs. However, when she boards the train to take her there, she finds that she has to share her carriage with boorish skinhead Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov), a foul-mouthed, misogynistic drunk travelling to start his new job down a mine. But like the landscape they’re travelling through, the more time Laura spends with Ljoha, the more he thaws, revealing the shy boy beneath the macho façade. This chance meeting between the two occupants of compartment no. 6 forces them to face the truth about their own yearning for human connection. There are certainly echoes of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995) here, but Kuosmanen’s film also has its own distinct sensibility, and his two leads bring charm and warmth to their characters as their journey progresses.