| Kummeli Goldrush | |
|---|---|
 Original Finnish film poster | |
| Finnish | Kummeli Kultakuume |
| Directed by | Matti Grönberg |
| Written by | Heikki Vihinen [fi] Timo Kahilainen |
| Produced by | Markus Selin |
| Starring | Heikki Vihinen Timo Kahilainen Heikki Silvennoinen Heikki Hela Vesa-Matti Loiri Jukka Puotila Mari Turunen Kari Hietalahti |
| Cinematography | Petri Rossi |
| Edited by | Kauko Lindfors |
| Distributed by | Finnkino |
Release date |
|
Running time | 92 minutes |
| Country | Finland |
| Language | Finnish |
Kummeli Kultakuume (English:Kummeli Goldrush)[1] is a 1997 Finnishcomedy film starringHeikki Hela,Heikki Silvennoinen,Timo Kahilainen andHeikki Vihinen [fi], stars of the Finnish sketch-seriesKummeli. This was their second cinema-release after 1995'sKummeli: Stories.Kultakuume has a singular plot whereasStories was composed of long-sketches.[2][3][4]
The film's sequel was being planned but eventually shelved for the time being due to Heikki Silvennoinen's death on 18 December 2024.
The story is set in 1984. Elmeri Hautamäki (Silvennoinen) is a man who has lived his entire life in a mental institution. He escapes with hishomosexual nurse Janne-Petteri Broman (Hela) and is joined by the Kagelberg twins Jönssi and Dille (Vihinen [fi] andKahilainen) on a quest for the hidden gold treasure of his father Kyrpä-Jooseppi Hautamäki, who was killed by a deserting GermanWaffen-SS soldier Peter North (Jukka Puotila) back in 1944, inLapland. Their escape leads them to be pursued by not only the Mental Institute's doctors Rasikangas and Kulokoski (Mari Turunen andKari Hietalahti) but by the police as well.
The motley crew arrives at Elmeri's father's site but are unable to extract a reasonable amount of gold from the river. At the dead of night Jönssi stumbles on a buried German motorbike and the bodies of two dead SS troopers. They find out that the motorbike's sidecar carries a chest full of Third Reich gold.
Later a police pursuit lands the group on the grounds of gay baron Eugen von Lahtinen (Vesa-Matti Loiri) during a poetry-themed spring celebration. The gold exchanger that the group goes to, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Oiva Lohtander [fi]), turns out to be working for a secretNazi organization. Through this contact Peter North, still alive and well, learns that Elmeri has found his gold and he returns to Finland. When Hautamäki returns to exchange the rest of the gold for cash he ends up in hand-to-hand combat with North. Hautamäki wins the fight (by asking North for a cigarette).
The gold is split among the good guys, Broman marries baron von Lahtinen, becoming themistress of his estate. Jönssi becomes the owner of the food-processing plant which he and his brother were fired from at the beginning of the film. Dille becomes a professor at theUniversity of Tampere. Elmeri marries a call girl named Vanessa and has many children. He takes Peter North's name in order to stay out of the mental asylum. Peter North ends up locked up in a mental institution under Hautamäki's name for the rest of his life.
Heikki Silvennoinen died on 18 December 2024 due to various health problems. Timo Kahilainen revealed during a live broadcast onYle in memory of Silvennoinen that a sequel to the film had been planned withSolar Films. The sequel's script was ready and financing was already on the pipeline.[5] Solar Films' executive producerMarkus Selin stated that the sequel would be shelved for the time being.[6] Timo Kahilainen toldIltalehti that even though he could not say anything for certain about the film's fate, he believed that it would not be made. He commented on the matter: "It's really clear that of course it can't be made. So no, it will not be made. If we don't have Elmeri Hautamäki in the movie, how could we make it?"[7]
