Marta Balaga “Kalevala,” a compilation of epic poetry drawn from Karelian and Finnish folklore and mythology, is full of violence, but director Antti J.
Jokinen – who has adapted the book for his film “Kalevala: The Story of Kullervo,” set in the 1100s and centering on the tragic hero Kullervo – has “no interest” in that. “It won’t be a super violent film.
We have fight sequences, the swords are heavy and the actors have been training for a year now. But it’s more interesting to show the impact violence has on people,” he tells Variety.
Jokinen has already dealt with a similar dilemma in “Purge,” taking on human trafficking and sexual cruelty. “I cut out a lot of [the violence] from the original book but its writer Sofi [Oksanen] was adamant: ‘Don’t clean it up too much.’ The violence towards women needed to be shown.
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