A Finnish man goes to the city to find a job after the mine where he worked is closed and his father commits suicide.
Direction
Kaurismäki's minimalism turns poverty into visual music.
Acting
Turo Pajala's face does more than most scripts.
Score
Rockabilly and Finnish tango in perfect doomed harmony.
Director
Aki Kaurismäki
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Turo Pajala was a real miner Kaurismäki discovered; he made only three films before disappearing from acting entirely.
Part of Kaurismäki's 'Proletariat Trilogy,' this invented 'Finnish neo-realism'—social critique delivered with so little emotion it circles back to profound feeling.
FI
