Farm life in Finland is so sexually charged it's a wonder any work gets done, to judge by this marvelous adaptation of a classic novel about a landowner's handsome son, Olavi, who sows his seeds wantonly, even as he leaves the land to become a lumberjack. He finds his comeuppance and eventual redemption not in the strict moral code of his father but in the liberating anger of the very women he abandons. In the telling, Tulio creates a gorgeous, surging paean to the land, the river, and sexuality, all intertwined. The expressive highlight is a log-rolling sequence in which our hero runs miles of dangerous rapids as girls watch, breathless, from the riverbanks. Kaarlo Oksanen is appropriately beautiful as Olavi, but the film belongs to three sensual, authentic actresses: Nora Mäkinin as Elli, Mirjami Kuosmanen as Annikki, and Tulio perennial Regina Linnanheimo as Kyllikki, who challenges her father by stripping before him, and dares to declare herself “pure” on her wedding day.