Fire and Ice: The Winter War of Finland and Russia

This high-definition documentary film features authentic re-enactments of the Soviet Union's invasion of Finland, and reveals how Finland’s spirited 105-day defense in a “frozen hell” helped change the course of what would soon become World War II. In November of 1939, when Finland was invaded by the Soviet Union, no one expected this tiny nation would resist the largest military force in the world. Also, no one anticipated one of the coldest winters in recorded history. Outnumbered and outgunned, Finns knew the war was not about territory; it was a total war for their very existence as a people. The Winter War was an epic life and death struggle that changed the course of World War II, and saved a democracy.

The war begins with the aerial bombardment of Helsinki. Fires rage in the city. Dazed citizens run for their lives. Poorly equipped Finnish troops face a massive Red Army attack supported by thousands of tanks, heavy artillery, and airplanes. The invasion is almost three times larger than the Allied landing at Normandy on D-Day. The Russians are confident of a quick victory.

A Finnish poet remembers how the war started. We enter her world as a child of eleven. An American remembers how at 21, he volunteered to drive an ambulance as he leads us deep into the frozen forests of northern Finland. The narrative is enriched with the contemporary accounts of journalists and soldiers on both sides of the conflict, many from war diaries translated into English for the first time. Historians provide unique insight and perspective. Rare archive footage, enhanced by meticulous attention to historical detail in re-creating scenes of both the battlefront and home front, brings this history to life.

Finnish soldiers improvise a defense. They attack tanks with Molotov cocktails and crowbars. Finland’s women form a unique corps called Lotta Svärd. And as temperatures descend to 50 below zero, their mastery of winter becomes a strategic advantage. Finnish resistance is relentless. They know this war is not about changing borders; their lives, their independence and their identity as a people and a nation is at stake. They unite against a common enemy as never before.