Kaurismäki is a Finnish director, screenwriter, producer and editor. He studied film directing in Munich from 1977 to 1981. With his younger brother Aki, who graduated from the same school (Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen), he founded the production and distribution company Villealfa whose name is an homage to Jean Luc Godard’s film Alphaville. The first film to come out from Villealfa was The Liar (Valehtelija, 1981) as well as the directing debut that he made together with his brother who starred in and co-wrote it. It was very successful and the brothers continued to collaborate on several films: The Worthless (Arvottomat, 1982), The Clan (Klaani: Tarina Sammakoitten suvusta, 1984) and Rosso (1985). Mika produced his brothers first feature film Crime and Punishment (Rikos ja rangaistus, 1983) and afterwards they went their separate ways. In 1987, Mika started his own production house Marianna Films and made his next independent film Zombie and the Ghost Train (Zombie ja Kummitusjunam, 1991), which won the film award Jussi in the category Best Director in 1991. Afterwards Mika moved to Brazil and worked on a co production Amazon (1990). Then he made The last border - viimeisellä rajalla (1993). He returned to Brazil with directors Samuel Fuller and Jim Jarmusch and directed the documentary Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made (1994). Afterwards he was involved in many international co-productions: Condition Red (1995), a thriller made in Philadelphia, the somewhat more popular comedy L.A. Without a Map (1998) with David Tennant and Julie Delpy; Highway Society (2000) and Honey Baby (2003). He returned to Brazil in his documentaries about Brazilian music Sound of Brazil (Moro No Brasil, 2002) and Brasileirinho - Grandes Encontros do Choro (2005). His last film so far is also a musical documentary: Sonic Mirror (2007) about the drummer and composer Billy Cobham.