Finnish
The Other Side of Hope
Its been a long six years since he directed his last movie Le Havre, but the wait was well worth it as Aki Kaurismäki has just released The Other Side of Hope another truly wonderful piece of escapism that is peppered with a more than the usual dose of realism to. The Finnish auteur…
Tom of Finland
As part of a compelling trend to document crucial parts of the history of the growth of the LGBT community comes this timely, and rather excellent, biopic on the life and work of one of the most influential and celebrated figures of twentieth century gay culture. Touko Laaksonen (Pekka Strang) was a middle-class Finnish Army Officer who…
Concrete Night
One can only imagine when the Finnish Film Academy submitted Concrete Night as the country’s official submission for the Best Foreign Picture Oscar in 2014, that the Finnish Tourist Authorities must have had a royal fit. This deeply disturbing story is shot in a bleak unforgiving depressing public housing project in one of Helsinki’s rougher…
LIGHTS IN THE DUSK
This is my third movie from idiosyncratic Finnish filmmaker Ari Kaurismaki that I have seen in as many weeks, and I am developing quite a taste for his work. This one is the last in his ‘loser’ trilogy and deals with loneliness and is heart wrenching sad. It is the tale of a Security Guard who…
