A surprising Finnish film from the end of the 60s, which proposes, in a science fiction environment that could have inspired Woody Allen's Sleeper, a reflection on the concept of democracy and the utopias it gave rise to, which kept the world divided and suspended at the time of the Cold War, which nevertheless caused episodes of enormous violence, permanently threatening the world with the total destruction of humanity.

The conclusion seems to be that totalitarian democracy annihilates the individual, and that only the imperfection of the democratic social struggle guarantees individual freedom, even if it generates violence and social confrontation.

However, totalitarianism inevitably imposes itself on the annihilation of the individual in the face of the collective interest.

An interesting reflection that well reflects the ambiguity of political thought at the time, which is still relevant, even in current times, when the Cold War has become history.

What is democracy after all? Are these regimes, in which we currently live, truly democratic?

Doesn't the ghost of totalitarianism remain suspended, waiting for the bankruptcy of social democracies, victors of the cold war?

In 2012, the world is much different than it was in 1969. Or our 2012, for that matter.

The official review of the Institute of History, after the restless 60s and 70s, shows that society has become liberal, with class boundaries no longer existing and progress being the goal of all.

Documentarian Raimo Lappalainen (Arto Tuominen) is looking back at the Finland of the late 60s and making a movie about sex symbol Saara Turunen (Ritva Vepsä), a nude model who dies at some point in the 70s. But as he gets deeper into her life, he discovers that the same issues that her world struggled with haven't truly gone away. Things get stranger when Kisse (Vepsä) to play the role of Saara in a recreation of her death. Ironically, this film's director Risto Jarva would die young in a car crash in 1977.

The future that this movie promised is one of people dancing by themselves in crowded clubs while wearing headphones, politically compromised media, Edie Sedgwick-looking doomed heroines, pushbutton instant food, unrest in a nuclear plant and inflatable see-through furniture. I really should start a Letterboxd list of movies that have transparent furnishings starting with this movie, Too Beautiful to Die and Camille 2000.

Also: I learned from Kathy Fennessy's Seattle Film Blog that co-writer Peter von Bagh -- who worked on the script along with Jarva and Jaakko Pakkasvirta -- wrote his master's thesis on Vertigo, which makes the dead woman being reborn -- or at least a look-a-like appearing -- make even more sense.

By the end, Lappalainen seems like no hero, as the leader of the protests who mentions the title of the movie before being killed live on TV, an event that shatters Kisse and barely a notice from him. He seeks to control her in his work, using her as an object instead of a person; this follows through to his real life.

I am obsessed by the ancient future. The time that seemed like it would be cleaner and perhaps better than the world that we live in today. Would it truly be a better place? This movie makes me doubt that. It would, however, be much more stylish.