Freedom is beyond heaven and hell
Jussi Ketola is picked up from his home at night and transported in black cars to the surface of the eastern border. At the border, Ketola is going to be shot, but he manages to sneak away from his murderers and runs across the border to the Soviet side. Across the border, the Soviet state police, the NKVD, gives him a new identity, a job at the collective farm and arranges for a new wife. Together with the Americans who came to Karelia voluntarily, Ketola is building a workers’ paradise. With Stalin’s persecutions, paradise turns into hell, where Ketola would rather take a bullet in his skull than live, but he is not allowed to die. He sees and experiences things that you really wouldn’t believe if they weren’t there.
The Eternal Road is a film based on Antti Tuuri’s successful novel, directed by AJ Annila and produced by Ilkka Matila, about a silent history. The film was part of the Suomi 100 celebration year 2017 program.
