"Maigret en Fenlande" ("Maigret Suomessa" in Finnish) is a classical crime mystery starring the French inspector Jules Maigret, but set in the Suomenlinna island fortress in Helsinki, Finland. Two professors, the Finnish Konrad Porola and the French Duclos, give a joint lecture at a special lecture, but straight afterwards, Porola is murdered and the first suspect is Duclos. Duclos wants a French policeman to investigate the case, and so Maigret arrives. By far the most of the film is spoken in French. Most characters are bilingual, but the two Frenchmen only know French and Norppa, the Finnish smuggler, only knows Finnish. There are some scenes where the Finns talk in Finnish. I found it easy to follow both languages, even given that I've only studied French for less than half a year. The film is entirely devoid of any fast "action" scenes. The whole plot only involves investigation and interrogation. And of course we get to see the beautiful Suomenlinna island fortress. In the middle, the film progresses so slowly it might start to bore people, but it speeds up in the very end, where Maigret finds the real murderer. The film ends with Maigret leaving Suomenlinna on his way back to France. I found this film very pleasant and interesting. It's a good display of co-operation between two European countries: France and Finland. This is living proof that a film doesn't have to be American to be interesting.
