A daring, obviously heartfelt experiment, Juha is Aki Kaurismä;ki's new silent version of a famed Finnish novel. Kaurismä;ki here willfully embraces the stylistics of the great film masters of the late 1920s-the crisp silent cinematography of a Sjöström or a Stiller. Complete with intertitles, a symphonic score, and the obligatory cutaway to a waterfall, the film tells of a tragic love triangle between the simple farmer Juha, his shy young wife Marja, and Shemeikka, the stranger with the fancy sports car who lures her to the big, brothel-ridden city. A simple story, yet one that perfectly fits Kaurismä;ki's concept of an elemental cinema, where speech remains unnecessary, and narrative is driven by image, sound, and soul.-Jason Sanders