Synopsis:

Koistinen is a night guard in a Helsinki shopping center and his days are routine. He has no luck or experience with women, even though Aila, salesgirl at a sausage-stand that Koistinen often visits, is interested in him. Koistinen’s routine will be interrupted the arrival of Mirja, a femme fatale with dishonest motives. Koistinen immediately gives in to Mirja’s charms.

color, 78'

PROJECTION:

Saturday 28.04.2007 AT 19:00

Friday 27.04.2007 AT 21:00

Synopsis:

This is a film adaptation of Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment set in modern Helsinki. Antti Rahikainen is a former law student who now works in a slaughterhouse. One day he enters an apartment and murders a businessman in cold blood. Immediately after the murder, Eeva shows up at the apartment and, instead of calling the police, advises Antii to run.

color, 93'

PROJECTION:

Monday 30.04.2007 AT 19:00

Saturday 28.04.2007 AT 21:00

Synopsis:

Seventeen men all named Frank and one named Pekka roam the streets of Helsinki. Their destination is the suburbs Eira, close to the sea. After their departure on this adventure each will face his own destiny: one is killed, another vanishes… Will anyone reach their destination?

b/w, 81'

PROJECTION:

Wednesday 02.05.2007 AT 19:30

Monday 30.04.2007 AT 21:00

Synopsis:

This is Kaurismäki’s third film and the first part of his “working-class trilogy” (the other two are Ariel and The Match Factory Girl). The leading actors are Matti Pellonpää and Kati Outinen: he is Nikander, a kindly garbage man who constantly gets in trouble and she is Ilona, an unlucky cashier in a supermarket. The two of them start an affair and finally get some hope and optimism in their lives.

color, 74'

PROJECTION:

Thursday 03.05.2007 AT 19:30

Wednesday 02.05.2007 AT 21:00

Synopsis:

This is Kaurismäki’s comical version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, set in the modern day business world. Hamlet is a spoiled rich Don Juan who, after his father’s death, inherits a position on the Management board of a company that wants to enter the rubber duck market. The ghost of Hamlet’s father soon appears to him and reveals the real cause of his death.

b/w, 87'

PROJECTION:

Saturday 05.05.2007 AT 19:30

Thursday 03.05.2007 AT 21:00

Synopsis:

After the mine gets closed down, former miner Taisto puts on his sunglasses and drives away to Helsinki in his white Cadillac in search of a better life. Soon he finds a job and moves in a new apartment with his girlfriend, but the police accuse him of a crime he did not commit. In prison he dreams about a better life outside of Finland, but even after he escapes from prison his bad luck does not change.

color, 72'

PROJECTION:

Monday 07.05.2007 AT 19:30

Saturday 05.05.2007 AT 21:00

Synopsis:

This is a road movie that follows the Leningrad Cowboys, a group of eight (actually, the guitarist is a frozen body) Finnish musicians who, together with their manager, decide to go to America and begin their music career there. Hoping for immediate glory and fortune in the Promised Land, they buy an old Cadillac (Jim Jarmusch has a cameo role as the salesman) and begin their tour across America.

color, 79'

PROJECTION:

Tuesday 08.05.2007 AT 19:30

Monday 07.05.2007 AT 21:00

Synopsis:

This is the third part of Kaurismäki’s “working-class trilogy”, made after Shadows in Paradise (Varjoja paratiisissa, 1986) and film Ariel (1988). The main character is Iiris, an assembly line worker in a match factory who lives with her strict and cold parents. Her drab routine is interrupted by a new red dress and a short romance. But after she gets hurt and becomes hopeless again, she decides it is time for revenge.

color, 69'

PROJECTION:

Saturday 12.05.2007 AT 21:00

Friday 11.05.2007 AT 19:30

Synopsis:

Henri, lonely French emigrant and victim of privatization is retiring and gets a false gold watch as a present for the occasion. He is desperate because he unsuccessfully tries to commit suicide and finally decides to hire a professional hit man to kill him. He spends all his life savings on the hired hit man and while waiting for his death, he meets a florist, Margaret, and falls in love with her.

color, 79'

PROJECTION:

Monday 14.05.2007 AT 21:00

Saturday 12.05.2007 AT 19:30

Synopsis:

The story takes place in Paris where three bohemians live: Marcel, a poet without a publisher, Rodolfo, an Albanian painter without a visa and Schaunard, a postmodernist composer. Living in poverty and constantly hungry, the three friends are forced to help each other and rely on their resourcefulness. Under such harsh conditions the love between Marcel and Musette and Rodolfo and Mimi endures many trials.

b/w, 103'

PROJECTION:

Tuesday 15.05.2007 AT 21:00

Monday 14.05.2007 AT 19:00

Synopsis:

Two friends, mechanic and alcoholic Reino and coffee-addict Valto who just ran away from his dominant mother, go for a drive. On the way they pick up two hitchhikers, the skinny Estonian, Tatjana, and a bigger Russian, Klavdia. Although there is a language barrier separating them, the girls become interested in the two boys. However, the clumsy and scared Valto and Reino just don’t know how to approach the girls.

b/w, 62'

PROJECTION:

Wednesday 16.05.2007 AT 21:00

Tuesday 15.05.2007 AT 19:30

Synopsis:

This is the sequel to Leningrad Cowboys Go to America, in which we follow the band’s return from Mexico to Russia. Musical success in Mexico is interrupted when they learn about the local specialty: tequila. Members of the band who avoided tequila overdose hang around Mexico until they decide to play at a gig on Coney Island. There they meet their manager, a guy who calls himself Moses!

color, 35 mm, 94 min

PROJECTION:

Thursday 24.05.2007 AT 19:00

Thursday 17.05.2007 AT 21:00

Wednesday 16.05.2007 AT 19:00

Synopsis:

This film shows the concert held for 70,000 people on Helsinki’s main square in June 1993. The performers included Leningrad Cowboys and the dance ensemble Red Army, that performed rock'n'roll classics and Russian folk songs such as Happy Together (The Turtles), Delilah (Tom Jones), Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan), Finlandia, Volga Boatmen.

color, 35 mm, 54 min

PROJECTION:

Thursday 24.05.2007 AT 21:00

Friday 18.05.2007 AT 21:00

Thursday 17.05.2007 AT 19:00

Synopsis:

Ilona is a waitress and her husband a tram driver. Even though they have lost a child recently they both seem happy and at peace with their lives. Soon they both get fired and they are forced to look for any kind of a new job. These new circumstances will test their marriage.

color, 96'

PROJECTION:

Saturday 19.05.2007 AT 21:00

Friday 18.05.2007 AT 19:00

Synopsis:

This film is Kaurismäki’s homage to silent films that follows a love triangle story between a woman and two men. A happy marriage between a farmer, Juha, and his wife Marja gets interrupted by the arrival of the town’s newest Don Juan (and crook) Shemeikka…

b/w, 78'

PROJECTION:

Monday 21.05.2007 AT 21:00

Saturday 19.05.2007 AT 19:00

Synopsis:

M., a middle aged man, has just arrived to Helsinki and immediately gets robbed and brutally beaten. He wakes up with amnesia. Because he does not remember anything he roams the streets and tries to build himself a new life among the homeless and other socially “invisible” groups of people. This film was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Foreign Film in 2002 and it won the jury’s award and the award for Best Actress (Kati Outinen) in Cannes.

color, 97'

PROJECTION:

Wednesday 23.05.2007 AT 21:00

Monday 21.05.2007 AT 19:00