The Unknown Soldier (1955 film)

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The Unknown Soldier
DVD cover
Directed by	Edvin Laine
Written by	Juha Nevalainen Väinö Linna
Based on	The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna
Produced by	T. J. Särkkä
Starring	Kosti Klemelä Heikki Savolainen Reino Tolvanen
Distributed by	Suomen Filmiteollisuus
Release date	December 23, 1955 (1955-12-23) [1]
Running time	177 minutes[1]
Country	Finland
Language	Finnish
Budget	FIM 46 million[1]
Box office	FIM 200 million[1]

The Unknown Soldier (Finnish: Tuntematon sotilas, Swedish: Okänd soldat) is a Finnish war film directed by Edvin Laine that premiered in December 1955. It is based on The Unknown Soldier, a novel by Väinö Linna. The story is about the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union as told from the viewpoint of ordinary Finnish soldiers.

The film was and remains the most successful movie ever in Finland; about 2.8 million people, or more than half the Finnish population, saw it in theaters.^[1][2] Its portrayal of Linna's characters is widely accepted as canonical. The film was voted the best Finnish movie by 1,213 respondents in an Internet poll by Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat in 2007.^[3][4]

The novel would be filmed again in 1985 by Rauni Mollberg and again in 2017 by Aku Louhimies.