Compartment No. 6


Compartment No. 6 is a 2021 drama road movie directed by Juho Kuosmanen, co-written by Andris Feldmanis, Livia Ulman and Kuosmanen, it's based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Rosa Liksom. It follows Laura, a lesbian Finnish student traveling by train from Moscow to Murmansk to study the Kanozero Petroglyphs, in shared compartment with a gruff Russian miner.
The film had its world premiere at the main competition of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival on 10 July, where it won the Grand Prix. It was theatrically released in Finland on 29 October by B-Plan Distribution.
It was selected as the Finnish submission for the Academy Award for [Best International Feature Film|Best International Feature Film] at the 94th Academy Awards, it was one of the 15 shortlisted films, but was not nominated for the Oscar.

Plot

In Moscow, Laura, a Finnish student, and her Russian girlfriend Irina have planned a trip to Murmansk to see ancient petroglyphs, but Irina cancels due to a scheduling conflict. Laura decides to make the trip alone. She shares her sleeping compartment with a Russian miner, Lyoha. He is drunk and brash, asking her to translate phrases into Finnish and then mocking the translation. When he asks how to say “I love you”, she tells him it is “haista vittu”, which means “fuck you”. He then asks her if she is going to Murmansk to work as a prostitute, and she angrily leaves the compartment. She asks to be moved to a different cabin, but the guard refuses. Unable to find anywhere else on the train to sleep, she returns to the compartment, where Lyoha is asleep. She sketches a picture of his sleeping face.
Laura gets off the train at the next stop, intending to travel back to Moscow. She calls Irina, but finds she is too busy to talk and spontaneously gets back on the train, where Lyoha has held her place in the compartment for her. He asks her if she took her bag because she thinks he is a thief, and she tells him she had planned to get off the train. They have a brief conversation in the dining carriage, and Laura tells him of her plan to visit the petroglyphs. She tells him she is in a relationship, but lies about having a boyfriend.
The train stops overnight in Petrozavodsk. Lyoha invites Laura to visit friends with him, but she declines. After getting off the train, she is accosted by a Russian man while using a payphone, but Lyokha intervenes. She goes with him to visit an elderly woman, where they drink moonshine. She wakes up the next morning badly hungover to find Lyoha chopping wood for their host. The woman tells Laura she “has found a good man”.
Laura encounters another tourist, Sasha, on the train and invites him to share their compartment. He plays the guitar, and Lyoha becomes angry and withdrawn, leaving the train at a stop to play with snow on the tracks. Laura watches him fall over, which he later denies. He also rudely declines a drink from her. After Sasha leaves, Laura finds that he has stolen her video camera and Lyoha commiserates. Laura tells him that she is in a same-sex relationship and confesses that she misses Irina less than she thought. As the train approaches Murmansk, they attempt to celebrate in the dining car but find they are out of everything except sandwiches and alcohol. Laura shows Lyoha her drawing of him, but when she asks him to reciprocate, he becomes frustrated and storms off. On their return to the carriage, they embrace.
After arriving in Murmansk, Laura finds there is no way to get to the petroglyphs by car in winter. Disappointed, she visits the open-cast mine where Lyoha works, and he comes to her hotel, offering to take her to the petroglyphs. The only way to reach the petroglyphs is by boat, and Lyokha persuades some local sailors to take them despite a gale warning. They reach the site of the petroglyphs but find nothing there. They play in the snow before returning to Murmansk, where Lyoha returns to work without saying goodbye. The taxi driver passes Laura a note from him, which is a crude drawing of her face with the words “Haista vittu” on the back.

Cast

During the Cannes Film Festival, Sony Pictures Classics bought the distribution rights to the film for North America, Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, excluding co-production country Russia, where the film was distributed by the local branch of the sister company, Sony Pictures Releasing, marking the company's second acquisition of a Finnish film following Aki Kaurismäki's The Man Without a Past in 2002.

Reception

Critical response

Accolades