Compartment No. 6 - a Finnish film

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For those of you who expressed interest, I thought I’d write about a couple of the films. One of the first we saw was ‘Compartment No. 6’, a Finnish film. Two strangers share a Russian train journey through the Arctic Circle and come to a better understanding of each other and of themselves. The bitter cold and snow-covered terrain was interesting to us and the storyline also held our interest. What was of particular interest to us was the train itself. Some years ago three of us planned to cross Russia on the trans-Siberian railway. We were advised to travel ‘cattle class’ where the compartments were converted to sleeping bunks at night. The other option was a cabin for four but, if you were travelling alone, you could find yourself in a cabin with Russian soldiers intent on sharing their vodka with you. The film gave good images of both options. The two protagonists shared a cabin but would have to traipse through the other compartments to get tea or hot water from the guard’s area. So we now have a good idea of how we might have travelled. The photo is of a Finnish couch-surfer with Hercules.