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War: Saving a Cat Brought Faint Hope Amidst the War's Senselessness
🇫🇮 Finland /Conflict & Security

War: Saving a Cat Brought Faint Hope Amidst the War's Senselessness

From Helsingin Sanomat · () Finnish

Translated from Finnish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Sources not specified Context piece
  • Filmmakers are showing the brutality of Russia's invasion of Ukraine through the eyes of Ukrainians.
  • The essay reflects on writer and artist Henrik Tikkanen's experience in the Continuation War and his subsequent antimilitarism.
  • Tikkanen used dark humor to depict war's horrors, recounting a friend's act of masturbation in a dugout and his cry about "a hundred million fallen heroes."

Filmmakers are capturing the brutality of Russia's invasion of Ukraine from a Ukrainian perspective, offering a raw and intimate look at the conflict's impact. This approach aims to convey the war's senselessness through the eyes of those experiencing it firsthand.

The essay draws a parallel to the experiences of writer and artist Henrik Tikkanen, who fought in the Continuation War as a minor. His wartime experiences profoundly shaped him into a lifelong antimilitarist. Tikkanen often employed macabre humor to confront the horrors he witnessed.

One anecdote from Tikkanen's work, "Majavatie 11," describes his friend, painter Pekka Halonen's son Antti Halonen. Halonen, an artillery officer, once masturbated in a sauna dugout. Upon reaching climax, he ejaculated onto the dugout's ceiling and exclaimed, "A hundred million fallen heroes again!" This dark humor served as a coping mechanism and a stark commentary on the absurdity of war.

A hundred million fallen heroes again!

— Antti HalonenDescribing his friend Antti Halonen's reaction after masturbating in a dugout during the Continuation War.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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