Compartment No. 6

Showtimes March 19 - 24:

Winner of the Cannes Grand Prix and Finland’s official submission for the Academy Awards, Compartment No. 6 is the story of a young grad student and a larger-than-life miner who board a train and share a sleeping compartment on their way to the Arctic Circle.

Divided by class, nationality, and language, to say that Laura (Seidi Haarla) and Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov) are unlikely friends is an understatement. Laura is a Finnish graduate student who’s traveling to Murmansk in a semi-intellectual/semi-poetic quest to experience some famous rock drawings first-hand. And Ljoha, who polishes off a large bottle of vodka on the first night of the trip, is traveling to the region to report for work at a mine. At the beginning of their journey, moments of discomfort arise when they do so little as talk one another. Yet as the train winds on, cracks appear in the facades they’re presenting, and their vulnerabilities force them to recognize each other as far more complex than the fronts they present to the world – or what their own prejudices dictate.

While built around a premise you’ve seen before, Compartment No. 6 takes you places you might never think of going, and its characters make you glad you’ve spent time with them. In an era when people are feeling so much polarization, it can feel revelatory and even cathartic to experience stories about unlikely human connection, and that’s the power of this award-winning film. Capturing the naturalistic behaviors that make us human and the psychological depth that makes life feel meaningful, Compartment No. 6 is “a small but sure triumph” – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune.

(Finland, Russia, Estonia, Germany / 2022 / Directed by Juho Kuosmanen)
R / 1 hr 47 mins
In Finnish and Russian with subtitles