An off-beat topic with high curiosity value gets straightforward treatment in Tania Anderson’s first feature documentary, The Mission. Exploring both the private feelings and public lives of four 18- to 20-year-old American kids sent to Finland to find new converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, the film is an unbiased portrait that grows warmer as it dips into the intimate side of its young subjects’ psychological make-up. While the audience’s initial response may be to keep the clean-cut protags and their blind faith at arms’ length – the reaction of most people they encounter on the street, in fact – Anderson pushes on until she finally breaks through to some of the deeper motives for which these missionaries are sent out into the world with the Book of Mormon under their arm. Beyond the scant handful of lonely converts they make in their two-year mission, their own inner growth is the real prize they bring home.
Of course, it isn’t easy filming someone else’s religion. This is the first time, as the press material explains, that the Church has permitted a non-LDS film crew to record an entire two-year mission. The film’s premiere in Sundance in the World Cinema Documentary Competition seems an appropriate venue for this respectful layman’s look an institution founded in 1830, whose headquarters has long been in Utah. The Finnish-German coprod should be popular at the Scandinavian festivals (Gothenburg is the door it will knock on next), after which TV exposure should be natural.
There’s a whiff of Frederick Wiseman in the way Anderson — a U.S.-Brit-Swiss writer for National Geographic based in Finland — plunges the viewer, sans comment, into the familiar Americana of a suburb, where behind a row of neat brick and frame houses rises the majesty of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains. In another part of town, a closely trimmed lawn leads to a functional public building that turns out to be a Mormon church. There we meet the fresh-faced, formally dressed kids who are nervous and excited to have been selected as missionaries on a two-year tour of duty in Finland.
First names are forbidden on the mission, along with many other restrictions designed to keep the missionaries’ minds on serving the people and spreading the word of Jesus. The boy who stands out right away is “Elder Pauole”, a natural leader who has been called on to deliver a formal speech before the assembly, much to his dismay. Elder Davis, a tall blond youth, is shown playing basketball. The women, instead, have strong family ties they are loath to leave behind. Sister Field is a girl bubbling over with sunshine and love for her family and her pugs. Sister Bills, a blonde girl who’s into loud rock music, is extremely close to her sister and has postponed college to put in 18 months as a missionary. Both Field and Bills, it becomes clear, put marriage and a family among their high-priority aims in life – but then, so do the boys.
Preparation requires attending a Church training center to learn Finnish, a language infernally different from English. Though their brief language classes seem hopelessly inadequate, the missionaries arrive in Helsinki able to say “I am a missionary” and to dive into the Bible and the holy Book of Mormon. But their inadequate grasp of Finnish remains a real handicap over their entire mission, leaving them in a permanent state of social insecurity and isolation from the locals. Luckily, they are paired off with another missionary “companion” of the same gender, providing a buddy to talk to, gently complain to, and an ear for their doubts. Even this is not a stable situation, however, since companions are rotated every couple of months, demanding everyone adapt to new roommates on a regular basis. (It is seriously suggested this will be good practice for marriage.)
Instantly recognizable in their well-pressed suits and well-shined shoes, elders Pauole and Davis tramp the snowy streets with their companions, approaching uninterested passersby with smiling patience and never allowing themselves to get discouraged. The editing alternates brief scenes of the four Americans, giving everyone equal space, while the camera remains invisible throughout and everyone acting like it wasn’t there. Sister Field is always an extroverted delight whether she’s giving away free ice cream or going mad over a pug on the street, while Sister Bills makes earnest house calls with her companion, strumming her guitar to entertain a lonely man and answering tough questions from a family of atheists, in Finnish.
The humorous side of these situations is mostly kept in check, but it can be felt just under the surface in the arch pizzicatos and playful repetitions of the score by Miko Joensuu, whose work as a music composer has often explored faith and spirituality. The film’s light mood is suddenly interrupted, however, when Davis reveals he has a history of mental health problems, including panic attacks and suicidal depression. Coming like a bolt out of the blue, this upsetting news has a rather moving denouement when one of the older church fathers puts his mission in perspective.
Also key to the film’s stylistic signature is the work of sound designer Janis Grossman-Alhambra, who knowingly fades conversations and natural background noise in and out of off-screen voice-overs by the protags themselves. Antti Savolainen’s cinematography nicely reveals the wonders of nature, in Finland as well as Utah, as a counterpoint to the missionaries’ daily rounds in the cities.
In the end, The Mission isn’t the kind of film that asks deep questions or incites controversy. The overall effect is far gentler: it puts a human face on those strange young people we occasionally cross paths with on the street. Maybe the next time we’ll stop and chat.
Director, screenplay: Tania Anderson
Cast: Megan Bills, Tyler Davis, McKenna Field, Kai Pauole
Producers: Isabella Karhu, Juho-Pekka Tanskanen
Coproducer: Dirk Manthey
Cinematography: Antti Savolainen
Editing: Suvi Solja
Music: Miko Joensuu
Sound: Janis Grossman-Alhambra, Isa Koroglu
Production companies: Danish Bear (Finland) in association with Dirk Manthey Film (Germany)
World sales: Autlook
Venue: Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Documentary Competition)
In English, Finnish
96 minutes
