The Year 1952

It took a dozen years, but in 1952 the greatest dream of sports-crazy Finland finally came true: the Helsinki Olympics took place. The nation had recovered, risen from the ashes of two wars and regained its economic footing. For the first time in a long time, the future looked like a lazy stroll down easy street.
The Year 1952 is certainly the lightest work in Von Bagh's cycle on decisive moments in Finnish history - more like a slightly up-beat tango, perhaps, than a piece of modern classical music. The Year 1952 sways through the days and months of 1952, aware of the bleakness behind as well as the brightness ahead, of a bygone gravitas and a looming flimsiness, of stories left untold back then and a history twisted and distorted ever since. A masterpiece of deft, multi-layered, polyphonic storytelling.