A forlorn Syrian refugee and a morose door-to-door shirt salesman form a rather odd couple, but their interaction sends a melancholy yet optimistic message about the strength of solidarity. And fans of the distinctive Finnish director won’t be disappointed: there’ll be plenty of laconic humor, subtly humorous gags, and his inimitable set design.
A cargo ship docks on a cold Finnish shore carrying a stowaway, a Syrian refugee named Khaled. He’s made it to Europe, but an asylum hearing still awaits and the outcome is uncertain. While hope is the last thing to die, he has to accept the possibility of having to live on the streets of Helsinki. At the same time, in another place, morose Wikström is dealing with a family catastrophe. One day he suddenly walks away from his door-to-door shirt-selling business, puts on a stony expression, and heads to the casino with a lifetime of savings. Will he parlay the cash into the restaurant he’s always dreamed of opening? Fans of the distinctive Finnish director will find the hallmarks of his work put to effective use in a story that brings together two disparate lives: laconic humor, subtly humorous gags, and his inimitable set design. And this time as well, Kaurismäki’s cinematic world, in which the situation usually has an unexpected outcome, is governed by an odd set of rules. Presenting a melancholy, yet optimistic message on the strength of solidarity, the picture was a highlight of this year's Berlinale, where it deservedly earned Kaurismäki the Silver Bear for directing.
Martin Horyna
98 min / Color, DCP
Director Aki Kaurismäki
/ Screenplay Aki Kaurismäki
/ Dir. of Photography Timo Salminen
/ Editor Samu Heikkilä
/ Art Director Ville Grönroos, Heikki Häkkinen, Markku Pätilä
/ Producer Aki Kaurismäki
/ Production Sputnik Oy
/ Coproduction Oy Bufo Ab, Pandora Film
/ Cast Sherwan Haji, Sakari Kuosmanen, Janne Hyytiäinen, Ilkka Koivula, Nuppu Koivu, Simon Hussein Al-Bazoon, Niroz Haji, Kaija Pakarinen
/ Sales The Match Factory
/ Distributor Aerofilms
Aki Kaurismäki (b. 1957, Orimattila, Finland), a truly exceptional director and screenwriter working in European film today, is a regular guest of the top festivals. He was an actor early in his career, including in his brother Mika’s films (Arvottomat, 1982). In features, he first sat in the director’s chair for an adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1983), but he came to world recognition with his now cult road movie Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). In 1992 Karlovy Vary organized a retrospective of Kaurismäki’s movies; the festival has continued to follow the career of the self-taught Finn with an eccentric but magical sense of humor, presenting later work as well: Total Balalaika Show (1994, documentary), Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (1994), Drifting Clouds (1996), Juha (1999), The Man without a Past (2002, Oscar nominee), Lights in the Dusk (2006), and Le Havre (2012).
Aerofilms
Milady Horákové 383/79, 170 00, Praha 7
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 224 947 566
E-mail: [email protected]
The Match Factory
Domstrasse 60, 50668, Cologne
Germany
Phone: +49 221 539 7090
E-mail: [email protected]
Ivo Andrle
Distributor
Sherwan Haji
Actor
Simon Al-Bazoon
Actor
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