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Sisu: the Tom Sukanen story

'Sisu' logo by Kevin Dowler

Sisu is the first feature film to be made about Tom Sukanen, the legendary Saskatchewan pioneer who built a steam ship on the prairie during the Depression. This is an entirely new telling of his life story by writer/director Chrystene Ells, based on intensive research and interviews with people who knew him. The film features both live action and a variety of animation and effects, with music, poetry and imagery from the Finnish epic, The Kalevala, layered over this fascinating and strange true story, played out against a backdrop of early 20th century Canadian prairie culture.

Sisu is a Finnish word with no direct English translation, which describes a trait that is highly regarded both among Finns and the people of the Canadian prairies. This single simple word translates roughly as a belief in never giving up, in tenacity of purpose, in steadfastness against all odds, and in courage even in the face of death.

Who Was Tom Sukanen?

Chrystene's pencil sketch of Tom Sukanen, from the only known existing photo

Tom Sukanen was a Finnish ship builder who immigrated to Saskatchewan, Canada, in the early part of the 20th century. According to the local legend, Tom was nothing but a crazy Finn who finally went completely insane, but a careful look at his bittersweet life and times paints a different and much more beautiful picture. His story, briefly, is as follows:

After his early success as a wheat farmer, Tom lost his family to influenza and his wheat fields to the dust storms of the 1930's. As the Depression hit and his life crumbled around him, Tom began to envision a fantastic and romantic dream to build a steam-and-sailing ship on his prairie farm and pilot her home to Finland. Over the next decade, Tom used the materials from his barn and house and transformed what had been his homestead into a magnificent ship, the Sontiainen. Click on the images to see larger versions.

the Sontiainen: the hull on the prairie

neighbors pose with the hull of the Sontiainen

the keel of the Sontiainen

For a decade Tom worked on the Sontiainen (Finnish for scarab or beetle), and although he finished the ship, he could not convince any of his neighbors, who had long thought he was nuts, to use their new steam engines help him tow the finished keel and hull to the river to begin the journey. Driven by his boundless passion and sisu, Tom hitched his last horse to a 'deadman winch' (pictured below) and began his final painstaking task, inching the keel and hull across the prairie towards the river, 17 miles away.

the deadman winch, plus the keel and hull of the Sontiainen, and some unknown neighbors

a watercolor by Chrystene, based on surviving photographs of the stranded ship, showing how Sukanen likely attempted to haul the Sontiainen across the prairie

The story does not have a Hollywood ending. After his last horse died, stranding the Sontiainen only 2 miles from where she was built, Tom's journey was finally brought to its end as members of the community succeeded in their efforts to have him committed to the North Battleford Mental Hospital, where he died shortly afterwards, in 1943.

The Sontiainen was later partially restored, and is now on display at the Sukanen Pioneer Village Museum south of Moose Jaw. In the 1970's Tom's body was moved to the museum and today he rests next to his ship (mistakenly labeled Dontianen in this picture).

Chrystene and Tom

Chrystene was living in San Francisco when she first heard the story of the misunderstood shipbuilder on the Canadian prairie. It was only a sentence or two, and although the name Tom Sukanen was not mentioned, nor was Saskatchewan or any other detail, Chrystene's life was changed in that moment.

"I first heard Tom's story," she says, "from Brian Lyttle, an amazing artist and knifemaker, over a glass or two of whiskey next to a fire in rural Alberta in about 1991. It got a hold of me instantly, and I knew immediately that one day I would make a movie about this man. Since then I have been driven, and at times even obsessed, with the making of this film."

Chrystene searched the internet for leads, but with almost no information she could never pin down the time, location, or characters of the actual story. It wasn’t until 2003 when she was looking at some pictures taken by her friend, photographer Kevin Dunn, for his Canadian Geographic photojournalism article on Saskatchewan, when she came across a photo of the ship mounted at the museum, where the name Dontianen was painted on the hull.

"That was the second time I really felt like Tom reached out and touched my life," says Chrystene. "The first time was the strange thrill I got when I first heard the story. Over the past four years, as I have gotten ever closer to making this film a reality, I have felt what seem to be unseen hands helping me realize the dream of telling Tom's story."

Chrystene embarked on a journey of her own, a multi-year research project which included various trips to Saskatchewan and interviews with several people who had known Tom, as well as visits to historical Saskatchewan museums and in depth studies of Canadian prairie culture.

breaking the prairie, Saskatchewan, 1930's

Saskatchewan threshing outfit and crew

backsetting, Saskatchewan, 1920's

Chrystene also spent most of April, 2007, in Finland, in order to learn more about Tom’s cultural history. She visited Finnish Karelia (particularly the Juminkeko Kalevala Institute in Kuhmo and Carelicum Museum in Joensuu) to learn more about the Kalevala, and then she traveled to southern Ostrobothnia where Sukanen likely started his shipbuilding career. Here she visited maritime museums (Forum Marinum in Turku and the Rauma Maritime Museum). What follows are some of the many research sketches she did on her trip.

after Ankseli Gallen-Kallela's 'Suuri Hanki' (the Giant Pike), 1904

detail after Ankseli Gallen-Kallela's 'Sammon puolustus luonnos' (Defense of the Sampo), 1899

pen and ink sketch of Old Town Rauma, Finland, 2007

pen-and-ink sketch of sextant, Rauma Maritime Museum, Finland, 2007

ink-and watercolor sketch of a model of the schooner 'Eros,' Forum Marinum, Turku, Finland, 2007

Who is behind Sisu? About Chrystene and Raul

Chrystene and her husband Raul Viceral, the Assistant Director and Head of Story on the film, hail from backgrounds in the California film and video game industries. Chrystene’s credits include work for George Lucas’ studio Industrial Light and Magic and on the feature film Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. In addition to being a long-time animator on various projects, Raul has done storyboarding and design work for NASA, and on The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age video game for Electronic Arts (EA). You can visit online portfolios here for Chrystene and Raul.

In spite of the compelling story of Tom's life, because of its seemingly distant and foreign subject and location, California producers were not interested in Sisu. For several years Chrystene worked on finding a way to produce the film, and finally she realized that she needed to be based in Saskatchewan in order to make it happen. Although she grew up in Canada, Chrystene was born in the US, and so the only way for her to be able to dedicate the years she felt it would take to make the film, she returned to Canada as a student, enrolling in the MFA program at the University of Regina. In 2006 she and Raul left the San Francisco Bay Area and relocated to Saskatchewan, buying a small 'wartime' house in Regina.

Chrystene and Raul's wartime house in Regina, Saskatchewan

“This story of Tom’s soul has haunted me for over 15 years,” says Chrystene, “and although most of my friends back in California think I am crazy for doing this (and some of the Saskatchewan folks we’ve met think so too), I have known from the beginning that this was something I was going to have to do. Ever since I first told him the story, Raul has been captivated, too. What's really beautiful about this project is the way that people become engaged with Tom's story, and want to join in the telling of it."

Publicity

The most recent publicity on Sisu is this clip that was on CBC Radio Canada's television broadcast, Telejournal Saskatchewan, which aired on Wednesday October 3, 2007. In September there was a large feature article in the Regina Leader Post Weekender section on Saturday, September 8. In addition, Chrystene was interviewed by CBC Radio's Morning Edition program on July 23, and by CJTR on July 25. Also, stories on Sisu have been covered on Shaw Television in Saskatchewan, the Finnish American Reporter, the Finnish Canadian paper, Vapaa Sana,and the Moose Jaw Times Herald. Below is the feature from the Regina Leader Post, and the articles from the Vapaa Sana and the Finnish American Reporter. Click on the graphics to see larger, readable versions of the articles.

Feature in the Regina Leader Post:

Two pages from the Vapaa Sana:

Finnish American Reporter article about Tom and Sisu:

(sketch of Tom by Chrystene)

Production Funding

Originally Sisu was going to be a simple documentary made for a few thousand dollars (what is left of Chrystene's father's life insurance), but both the richness of Tom's story and the fact that word spread quickly through first the local and then the national community about the project have inspired Chrystene to aim much higher, and the script now is woven around a visually rich, almost epic dramatic narrative that aspires to do justice to the poetic nature of Tom's mythic life and times. As the concept has grown, so has the number of people involved, and so of course has the budget. As a non-Canadian, Chrystene frequently falls outside of the categories that describe artists who are eligible for the government funds and grants that are generally available for Canadian filmmakers. In order to access the funds, she has been asked to sign over 100% of the rights and creative control of the film to a Canadian producer in perpetuity, and to give up her credits as director, writer, and producer, which she cannot bring herself to do, so the film is being made on a true shoestring.

Chrystene is now in search of help to find the funds to help pay the local people who are so generously working to make the film happen. She is looking for an angel, an investor, or a producer who would be willing to take a chance and lend a hand to finally bring Tom's story to the big screen. Funding is already needed to help pay actors, carpenters, costumers, and designers, just to name a few of the deserving folks who are working on the project.

Donations are tax-deductible, and every little bit helps!

For more information on Chrystene and her background, or to see what it took to get the film ready for shooting over the summer, please click on the links in the 'Links' section (above right). And of course, feel free to contact Chrystene by email by clicking here or, if that doesn't work, here.

Sisu!