Seamstress
So great is to die and live for happiness and freedomA documentary film about Martta Koskinen, the last executed woman in Finland during the war in 1943. Martta was a Seamstress who lived in Helsinki during the Second World War. She was one of the post-civil war (in 1918) generation for whom the war had meant a disappointment in the system and failure in unity of the Finnish nation. The legacy of the civil war had left systems of persecution in place for those with socialist ideals. Martta and her fellow revolutionaries were determined to continue the resistance movement although they knew that at worst it could cost their lives. Martta was imprisoned twice before she was shot. She was an idealist, whose seemingly harmless, naive beliefs in peace and justice were the most dangerous traits a person could have at the time.
Martta Koskinen
Herself (Archive footage)Vera Kiiskinen
Martta Koskinen (voice)Pekka Milonoff
Narrator (voice)Laura Birn
Hertta Kuusinen (voice)Elena Leeve
Mirjam Koskinen (voice)