Compartment No. 6
On a train ride to view the petroglyphs in Murmansk, Russia,
a young Finnish woman named Laura finds herself trapped with a drunken pig of a
man as her sleeping compartment companion.
She tries to escape to another car by paying off the train conductor,
but there are no other cabins to be had.
Once he sobers up, Ljoha the drunk, tries to befriend Laura,
asking personal questions and telling her something about himself. He, too, is headed to Murmansk, but he’s got
a job waiting for him in the mine.
Laura has left behind her Moscow girlfriend to travel to
Murmansk. Her girlfriend is one of the Moscow
educated class, friends with professors and writers. The young man on the train
is an absolute lout, but, with his complete lack of artifice, Ljoha starts to
get under her skin, becoming an itch she needs to scratch. Laura does try to reach her girlfriend en
route to Murmansk, but is dismayed by the voices she hears on the call, and
understands that her affections were quickly replaced by another.
Having little to occupy her time on the train ride, and against
her better judgement, she slowly accepts Ljoha’s friendship, which always seems
to involve alcohol-fueled exploits. As the train rolls through the snow-filled frozen tundra, the couple exchange the type of intense, revealing conversations
you might have with a stranger, someone that you know you’ll never have to see
again. Or someone you see only occasionally, like your hairdresser.
Juho Kuosmanen's Compartment No. 6 is a film about facing the disappointments
and unexpectedness of life, and how you persevere, or perish. We watch the pair evolve to appreciate the hard and softer facets of each other, characteristics that appear to be absent within themselves. A simple story, pushed to higher levels of
enjoyment by the excellent casting of Seidi Haarla as Laura and Yuriy Borisov
as Ljoha.
Lisa Blanck is the Associate Editor for In Focus Magazine. She's been a News Editor at NBC affiliate WESH2 in Orlando for more than a decade. She was formerly with WKMG6 for 14 years as a News Editor. She spent nine years in advertising, marketing, promotions and live special events at Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite and MTV Networks. She also worked as an on-air host for local cable access programs. Lisa has covered the Florida Film Festival for the past 30 years as well as the World Peace Film Festival. She was a columnist for Lady Freethinker, ShelterMe.tv and Examiner.com. She has been a columnist for the Focus In Newspaper and now for In Focus Magazine.
Lisa Blanck can be reached at: [email protected]