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MANNERHEIM, THE GREATEST FINN OF ALL TIME

An incredible journey to an era that changed the world.

Courtesy of Otava, Helsinki
Mannerheim as a cadet.
“Mannerheim” tells the story of a man who was recently voted the greatest Finn of all time. It is the story of a distinguished military leader, an intrepid explorer and a great statesman: a human destiny not possible in the modern world.

The movie follows his life from the motherless small child who is abandoned by his aristocratic father, to the handsome young man who joins the Imperial Russian army towards the end of the 19th century. Always penniless and no stranger to the exotic temptations and delights of Tsarist St. Petersburg, young Mannerheim marries the daughter of a Russian general.

Not born to fill the role of family man, however, our hero gets his baptism of fire in the ill-fated Russo-Japanese war of 1905. The decorative but as yet untried guards officer pays his dues in real battle and gains the heartfelt respect of his soldiers.

Escaping the disappointments of marital life and shameful military defeat, Mannerheim undertakes a two-year expedition through the spacious, untracked reaches of the Asian continent. Later, in Poland, he meets the love of his life – only to be thrown into the mayhem of the First World War, where he serves as a cavalry commander.

The turmoil and politics of the 1917 Russian Revolution force Mannerheim to depart his adopted country for his native Finland, where he successfully commands the White Army against the Red, in a ruthless and bloody civil war that pits brother against brother, father against son.

Newly independent and finally at peace, Finland no longer requires Mannerheim’s military services and throughout the twenties and thirties he leads the life of a cosmopolitan big-game hunter and active Red Cross organizer and philanthropist.

Courtesy of Otava, Helsinki
General Erik Heinrichs and Marshall Mannerheim in the headquarters in summer 1941.
But there is yet another call to arms for Marshall Mannerheim. It is 1939 and Mannerheim attains immortality in Finland by commanding the Finnish Army in the life or death struggle between the tiny new nation and the Soviet Union - its vast, hungry, eastern neighbor. The Finnish Winter War is a little known chapter in a much greater global conflict, but one that is simply extraordinary for the guts, ingenuity and sheer heroism the Finns display against immeasurably superior forces. Mannerheim deploys his scanty troops with brilliant strategy, in appalling cold, in battles little short of miraculous in outcome.

Finally, as President of his country and an old and fragile man, Mannerheim negotiates Finland’s way to peace without dishonor; peace without loss of sovereignty.

“Mannerheim” is the story of a far from flawless human being, but one driven to almost superhuman accomplishment by his sense of honor, duty and service to his country, and to its ethics and way of life. But he is a man not invulnerable to weakness - and we also get to see this side of the icon: Mannerheim with all his human foibles and irresistible attraction for women.

It is a story of a mind over matter: an amazing journey through a dramatic period of history, and one that is crying out to be told.

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