Katri, Girl of the Meadows

Plot

Set in Finland, the plot starts in 1911 when little Katri's mother leaves for Germany to work, leaving her daughter with her grandparents. At the beginning of the First World War in 1914, with Finland still under Russian rule, the inhabitants of these lands have had little or no news from the outside, and no one knows if Katri will see her mother again, whose money meanwhile stops arriving to the family. To make matters worse, things on Katri's grandparents' farm are not going well; the harvest had been a small one, their only cow had been killed by a bear and the family faces great monetary problems.

Katri wants to help and, against her grandparents' will, she finds work in a neighboring farm; for a girl of hardly nine years of age farm work is hard and tiring even with all of her enthusiasm and good moods, which is what keeps her standing. While working on the farm, the little girl learns about Kalevala from old Gunilla and learns to read and write thanks to her.

Later, Katri works as a nanny for a wealthy child, whose mother will send her to school in Turku. Katri has great success in her studies, thanks to Gunilla's help. The child will also know how the Russian Revolution and the war will lead to independence of Finland from Russia. At the end of the war, Katri's mother comes back to find her daughter. Katri, once adult, will write children's stories.

Cast

• Hitomi Oikawa as Katri Ukonniemi
• Toru Furuya as Martti
• Yuko Tsuga as Mari (Martti's sister)
• Yuko Kobayashi as Helena (Martti's cousin)
• Yoshiko Matsuo as Miina (Helena's mother)
• Mahito Tsujimura as Väinö Harma
• Asami Mukaidono as Milole (Harma's maid)
• Kumiko Takizawa as Lotta Kuusela
• Hisashi Katsuta as Elias Lilack (Lotta's father)

Episodes

References

References

1. "Little Girl Goes to School (1987)".
2. "Little Girl on the Farm (1987)".