AllMovie

Though not commonly recognized in the west, Helsinki, Finland for years claimed one of the most violent and lethal urban undergrounds of any European metropolis. Its checkered criminal history inspired a jarring nonfiction tome, Rööperi - The Years of Crime 1955 - 2005 by Harri Nykänen and Tom Sjöberg, and now this screen adaptation of the same work, which roughly covers the period of 1966-1979. A Finnish-language ensemble crime drama, it intersects events from the lives of characters swept up in this maelstrom, whose outcomes differ radically: some succeed in going straight, and others find themselves sucked back into crime, while still others die violent deaths. All, however, get into crime for the same reason - to escape from destitution - and stick with it for the same reason: because they have attained an insatiable desire for money and power. Director Aleksei Makela filters it all through the eyes of Koistinen, a local cop who witnesses everything as the years unfurl.