The Murderer
In the film the murderer is revealed to be Kurt Kuurna. Although all the evidence points to Kaarle Lankela, the attempted suicide and false but accurate confession made by Kirsti Skrof (taken from details that were given to her by Virta) causes the whole affair to become untangled.
Palmu's suspicions about Kuurna are aroused due to his unusually proactive involvement in the murder case as well for delivering Kirsti's suicide note, which at first glance doesn't appear to concern him. After Kirsti's suicide attempt Kuurna is put under police watch. When he shines the light on a hanged mannequin on his window the police and Palmu first suspect he has killed himself. Kurt reveals himself to be the killer with his gruesome portrait of Palmu (where Palmu is depicted as Janus) where he accidentally painted the tipped pot over the gas-cooker, a detail only the murderer would have known.
The climax is heavily indicative that Kuurna is homosexual but the motives of the murder are also tied to the story about his ancestor's surrender of a horse to the King of Sweden. This similarity spotted by Virta late into the film believing that Kuurna has turned the event into a metaphor for his own motives. Though Palmu initially dismisses the idea, he later confronts Kuurna with the theory. It is revealed that Kurt had feelings for Kaarle and intended to have him framed for the murder in order to save him, believing the police could not establish a motive for Kaarle even though everything else points to him being the killer.
What ultimately motivates Kuurna to kill Alma Skrof is a remark about his and Kaarle's relationship being abnormal. Kuurna is a decisively complex killer, his motives being more psychological than practical, who also displays guilt over his actions. He intercepts the false confession made by Kirsti and he may have painted the tilted pot unconscious that it would ultimately tie him to the crime-scene. After Palmu points out the tilted pot in Kuurna's painting, Kurt attempts suicide by throwing himself down the spiral stairwell of his apartment building but is stopped by the police at the last second.
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