Laura (Seidi Haarla), a Finnish archeology student, is more than just a little unsure of herself at a party the night before she’s to leave on a long train trip from Moscow to Murmansk to see the famed Kanozero Petroglyphs. From the first shot—we see the back of Laura’s head as she nervously exits the bathroom—onward, it’s clear that she sees herself as an outsider looking in. Laura’s much more confident lover Irina (Dinara Drukarova) was supposed to accompany her on the voyage, but backed out at the last second due to vague, work-related reasons. Their relationship is one-sided and on its last legs. Not all that thrilled about venturing out on her own, Laura gets on the train anyway. She’s not alone for long. She gets off on the wrong foot with her surly compartment-mate Lyokha (Yuri Borisov), a belligerently drunk Russian miner headed to Murmansk for work. Laura’s dislike of Lyokha is so strong that she spends a considerable amount of time searching for a new compartment, to no avail. They’re stuck with each other in close quarters. It’s a testament to Juho Kuosmanen’s direction and Jani-Petteri Passi’s cinematography to say that Compartment No. 6 doesn’t feel overly claustrophobic; this is not a harrowing horror/thriller warning us about the dangers of traveling as a single woman. Instead, the light melting over Laura and Lyokha’s personal belongings creates a warm tone, one in which they can feel comfortable enough to mutually let their guard down.
Shot like an early Dardenne brothers film (intentionally shaky handheld camera movements follow the back of Laura’s head), Compartment No. 6 sees Laura frequently use her camcorder as an escape. Both filming people outside the train windows and rewatching footage from her old life with Irina, she takes the audience out of the cramped space. Kuosmanen also gives the film air to breathe through the stops along the way, during which Laura and Lyokha get to know each other in the freezing Russian winter despite themselves—including a trip to drink vodka with an elderly woman who delicately explains to Laura the importance for women to “listen to their inner small animal.” There couldn’t be a more fitting metaphor to describe Laura’s personal journey throughout Compartment No. 6: Learning to let go of past expectations and listening to her own intuition, without Irina or anyone else to prop her up.