Film students' graduation movies are often somewhat rough around the edges and suffer from low distribution, but sometimes there are gems to be found among them too. A good example would be Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää's beautifully enigmatic The Visitor (2008), but Tero Molin and Tommi Lepola's epic genre-crosser The Book of Fate is well worth a watch as well.
Much larger and expensive a production than an average film school graduation work, The Book of Fate tells the story of a mysterious cosmic book written long ago by an ancient race of powerful beings. Once thought to be lost forever, the Book has now been located on Earth and keeps appearing in various places in different eras of history. The story is divided into five segments: an 18th century vampire horror flick, a stylized western, a gritty Winter War portrayal, a modern techno-thriller and a futuristic science fiction finale. Each segment is about 15 minutes in length and stars recently graduated acting students Juha-Pekka Mikkola and Johanna Kokko in various roles. All the stories are concluded at the end, and the priest character from the first segment makes dream-like appearances in the other stories as well.
It is obvious that the writer-directors Lepola and Molin are very familiar with the conventions of the genres they utilize in their story. The ultra-cool gunslinger with no name and the quiet, tense stand-offs and shootouts of the western segment are clearly influenced by the legendary Dollar trilogy by Sergio Leone, while the present day agent thriller plays out like a mash-up of James Bond plot lines and the suave style of The Matrix trilogy. The grainy black and white Winter War segment evokes memories of the legendary The Unknown Soldier (1955), often considered the definitive war film in Finland. When the film's tagline is "repetition is the mother of learning", it is obvious that the movie has been written with a wink in the eye, so strict demands for originality are not reasonable here – The Book of Fate is basically five genre movies in one.
The fragmented nature of the narrative allows the filmmakers to demonstrate their aptitude for very different styles of presenting a scene. The lighting, cinematography, camera work and music change from one segment to another, always staying true to the traditional style of the genres covered. I especially liked the yellow and sepia tones of the western segment and the cold, stark colours of the present day scenes. The martial arts and the gunplay in the agent thriller are also pretty cool and decently planned, even if not as smooth and fast as in "real" big budget actioners. The bright white glow of the final segment on an isolated space ship is pleasing to the eye as well, but the gloomy vampire tale at the beginning feels a bit too dark at points. Also, the black and white photography of the Winter War scenes could have been starker, although in a way the grayness enhances the realistic atmosphere.
Besides the aspects mentioned above, the diverse sets deserve a nod too; the film cleverly utilizes existing locations (such as the yard of a roofless church, the Särkänniemi amusement park and the Wild West village in Ähtäri) to cut corners in the set design budget that could have otherwise grown very large. The costumes and makeup are very well created too, particularly in the western, thriller and sci-fi segments.
Besides the two lead actors Mikkola and Kokko who appear as protagonists in every segment, many well-known Finnish veteran actors make appearances in the different eras of the film's timeline. Especially Vesa Vierikko is both funny and cool as the mad scientist Strömberg in the present day segment and the legendary Åke Lindman boils in rage in his very last credited movie role as the intergalactic leader Galagf in the sci-fi scenes. Smaller roles have also been given to ex-wrestler Tony Halme (playing a bulky commander), "the man without a past" Markku Peltola (a scientist) and Santeri Kinnunen (an Army lieutenant). A lot of the acting is somewhat stiff and theatrical (using formal textbook language doesn't help either), but it doesn't really bother me much since the movie is largely an homage to genres that are not known for world-class acting in the first place.
Even though none of the individual segments can be called a masterpiece, together they make a very entertaining whole. For a Finnish student film The Book of Fate is an extraordinary achievement, but even when compared to real genre flicks from which Molin and Lepola have drawn their inspiration, the movie is not terrible at all in spite of the appallingly low IMDb rating (3.7/10 with 436 votes at the time of writing this). There is also a lot of humour thrown in; luckily it is not the boring We-Know-We-Are-Making-a-Bad-Movie kind of intentional crappiness, but instead subtler references to the clichés of each genre (stay tuned for the hilarious post-credit faux-trailer). Fully acknowledging its diverse cinematic roots, The Book of Fate is a movie for film buffs by fellow film buffs; warmly recommended to any cinephile with an eclectic taste in popular cinema.
