Finnish "pö"

Cubby · Post by **Cubby** » 09 Jun 2005 22:04

Reading that Swedish legal text reminded me of the Finnish movie "Mies vailla menneisyyttä". Unfortunately, I know almost no Finnish, so I missed out on the linguistic side of the movie. However there is one simple question I have always wondered about: what does "pö" mean? It's written on the side of the water container that the boys are carrying. Is it the owner's initials or is it an actual word/abbreviation/acronym? Any information about this or the movie would be greatly appreciated.

Kiitos!

Crocmiten · Post by **Crocmiten** » 10 Jun 2005 15:51

I think that you are speaking about "The man without past" from Aki Kaurismäki, this famous finnish film director. He is a great man, and all his films are very famous, even if in Finland with the finnish film law it was not a great success (as i heard).

This one won two award in Cannes in 2002 and i really enjoy it when i saw it.
The first time it was during a finnish course, we were studying finnish culture and the teacher told us that we had to see this film, and the last time i saw it in France, 3 weeks ago. I just love all of his films.

But about the "pö" i don't know anything sorry...

didine · Post by **didine** » 10 Jun 2005 20:56

"Pö" isn't an actual word. I haven't seen the movie, so I'll ask my Finnish friends if they know what these two letters refer to.

Crocmiten · Post by **Crocmiten** » 10 Jun 2005 23:17

Ok, for this "pö" things i asked two finnish friends, and both of them knew this "Mies vailla menneisyyttä", but didn't know about the meaning.

Maybe a kind of advertising ?! because i read somewhere that Kaurismäki was always trying to put some kind of avertising in all of his films, which is quite weird when you imagine what can of film he is realizing.

Both of them asked me, if the spelling of the word was good, because when you says "Pöö" with two "öö" this is for scarying someone

Cubby · Post by **Cubby** » 11 Jun 2005 20:31

Well, if it doesn't mean anything to the average Finn, I wouldn't worry about it. It's probably some ownership mark.

In case you want to see what I'm talking about, here's an image from the movie:

didine · Post by **didine** » 11 Jun 2005 20:39

Here's the key to this mystery!

"Pö" stands for polttoöljy = "fuel oil".

Crocmiten · Post by **Crocmiten** » 12 Jun 2005 00:41

She knows everthing !

didine · Post by **didine** » 12 Jun 2005 07:16

Crocmiten wrote:She knows everthing !

As a matter of fact I didn't know, I was given the answer.

Cubby · Post by **Cubby** » 13 Jun 2005 23:44

didine wrote:Here's the key to this mystery!

"Pö" stands for polttoöljy = "fuel oil".

Kiitos! That was the key to the whole movie!