Frozen Land (18) <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

Like Robert Bresson's L'Argent, this Finnish drama is loosely based on Tolstoy's short story "The Counterfeit Note", in which the passing of a forged banknote sets off a chain of misfortunes. In this well-acted version, set in contemporary Helsinki, the misfortunes include thefts, three murders and one accidental killing, the orphaning of at least four children, mental breakdown, the consumption of much booze and quite a lot of nasty sex. The structure - the way the trail of bad luck and ill-feeling loops back on itself - is intermittently satisfying, at times even throwing up a streak of black humour. But by the end the misery feels forced, and the bleakness seems not so much Tolstoyan as adolescent.