In his films Mika Kaurismäki often portrays strong women and urban landscapes. He has recently been making more and more international co-productions, thus making European versions of American road movies…
As is often the case with film in small countries, a “turning point” is announced every time a new generation of filmmakers emerges. The first “real” modernist new wave emerged in Finland in the 1960s, a bit after similar films started being made all over Europe. However, this “turning point” had only a local character and lasted fifteen years, roughly until the tragically early death in 1977 of Risto Jarve, who was one of the most famous representatives of his generation. In the end of the 1980s Finnish film lost its freshness and seemed to be waiting for some new blood that would finally take it to the international film scene.
The emergence of the two brothers Mika and Aki Kaurismäki soon made it possible for the dream of Finnish Cinema to come true. The older Mika studied directing at the Hochschule für Fernsehn und Film in Munich and began making films together with Aki who mostly acted and wrote screenplays at the beginning of his career. Their first two feature films The Liar (Valehtelija, 1981) and The Worthless (Arvottomat, 1982) successfully combined the local Finnish mentality with international influences. These films were not very popular at first but over time they achieved a cult status with domestic as well as international film lovers. At the same time, the Kaurismäki brothers founded the film production house Villealfa, as well as one of the most interesting film festivals of the world, the one in the Lapland town Sodankylä, which is frequented by legends of world cinema, from Coppola to Kusturica.
Soon Mika and Aki went their separate ways. In his films Mika Kaurismäki often portrays strong women and urban landscapes. He has recently been more and more involved in international co-productions, making European versions of American road movies. It is clear that he has been heavily influenced by Jean-Luc Godard and Wim Wenders, as well as the American painter Edward Hopper. His most famous film Zombie and the Ghost Train (Zombie ja Kummitusjuna, 1991) combines Finnish melancholy, popular music, longing for exotic places and elements of road movies.
After several less successful road films in the 1990s, Mika “discovered” Brazil, a country that he first visited while making his documentary Tigrero (1993) about one of Sam Fuller’s unrealized projects. Inspired by music, Mika made documentaries about Brazilian musicians. Sound of Brazil (2002) and Brasileirinho (2005), as well as Sonic Mirror (2007), were much more successful than his earlier experiments with European road movies.
After last year’s exquisite selection of Aki Kaurismäki’s films in Tuškanac, this selection of films from Mika Kaurismäki’s opus completes the picture of contemporary Finnish cinema for Zagreb viewers.
(Boris Vidović, program selector)