A Chaotic Sprint Toward Redemption

Read Time:5 Minute, 27 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
100 Liters of Gold (100 litraa sahtia)
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Genre: Black Comedy, Western-Influenced Dramedy
Year Released: 2024, 2025
Runtime: 1h 28m
Director(s): Teemu Nikki
Writer(s): Teemu Nikki
Cast: Elina Knihtilä, Pirjo Lonka, Ville Tiihonen, Ria Kataja
Where to Watch: shown at the Rome and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festivals

RAVING REVIEW: The first thing that strikes you about 100 LITERS OF GOLD is how it leans into the reality of everyday people who make questionable choices for understandable reasons. Writer/director Teemu Nikki, who has built a career on mixing empathy with sharp-edged satire, brings that same sensibility to this story of two middle-aged sisters whose lives revolve around the small traditions that define their identity. In this case, that tradition is sahti — the rustic, unfiltered, almost mythical farmhouse beer that carries an outsized level of pride in rural Finland. Nikki’s personal connection comes from a family of brewers and regards the drink as a cultural anchor, not just a beverage.

The setup is simple, and that simplicity works to the film’s advantage. Pirkko and Taina have one job: brew 100 liters of sahti for their sister’s wedding. They accomplish half the task with ease—the brewing part. The problem arises with the tasting. Their batch is so good that “just a sip” becomes “just a glass,” and before long, the barrel is empty, and they’re waking up with industrial-strength hangovers. With less than two days before the wedding, the two must figure out whether they can recreate their masterpiece, find another source, or simply improvise something that won’t get them disowned by their already-stressed family.

On the surface, that sounds like a setup for a straightforward comedy. Nikki uses the plot to explore pride, shame, family wounds, and the unspoken resentments that accumulate over the course of decades. The sisters aren’t caricatures; they’re stubborn, loyal, insecure, and tied to the identity that sahti gives them. The more disastrous their journey becomes, the more obvious it is that the beer isn’t really the problem — it’s the thing holding them together and simultaneously pushing them toward the edge. The film isn’t about alcoholism, but about how people reach for comfort, tradition, or nostalgia to fill emotional gaps they don’t want to confront.

Elina Knihtilä and Pirjo Lonka carry the film. Their chemistry feels genuine, more like siblings who have mastered the art of exasperation than performers hitting comedic beats. Their banter flows with the natural rhythm of people who know exactly how to annoy each other. Even when they aren’t speaking, the glances and reactions between them do much of the emotional heavy lifting. You sense their history, whether the film spells it out or not.

The humor is intentionally dry — the kind of awkward, resigned comedy that thrives in moments of silence and escalating desperation. No one is trying to prevent a scandal that will change history. It’s just a wedding. A small-scale catastrophe for a small-scale community. Yet because the film respects how much that matters to the people involved, it never feels trivial.

Ville Tiihonen, as the unpredictable Hauki-Hikkanen, offers a different flavor of chaos from the sisters’ dynamic — less emotional, more aggressively unhelpful. The side characters don’t overwhelm the central story; instead, they reinforce the sense of a village where everyone knows everyone else’s business.

The escalating misadventures occasionally stretch their jokes a touch too far, and a few stretches feel repetitive. That isn’t unusual in comedies built around spiraling chaos, but in this case, the repetition slightly loosens the tension rather than tightening it. Given the tight 88-minute runtime, the dips don’t last long, but they’re noticeable enough to keep the film from reaching its full potential.

The story’s emotional payoff works. When the sisters finally confront their shared history, the moment lands because the film never overplays its hand earlier. Their journey is chaotic, messy, and self-inflicted, but the film never mocks them for it. The final scenes feel like the film circling back to its own purpose — not to shock, not to moralize, but to remind us that love in families often shows up in the most dysfunctional, sideways expressions imaginable.

Nikki’s reputation as one of Finland’s most interesting directors is well-earned, and 100 LITERS OF GOLD fits comfortably within his body of work. It may not be his strongest film, but it showcases the same recognizable blend of empathy, absurdity, and honesty. The film’s major success in Finland and its international festival presence make sense: it’s specific enough to feel authentic, yet universal enough for audiences anywhere to relate.

It’s enjoyable, heartfelt, occasionally uneven, and fully committed to the world it builds. Not every joke lands, and not every moment is as sharp as it could be, but when it works, it captures something beautifully human — the way people cling to the rituals that define them, even when those rituals lead them straight into disaster.

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[photo courtesy of IT'S ALIVE FILMS, ALL AT ONCE, SMILE ENTERTAINMENT, THE CULTURE BUSINESS, VALOFIRMA THE LIGHT HOUSE]

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