Elina Salo

Iris has a dead-end job in a match-factory, lives with her dour and forbidding parents, and her social life is a disaster.

The chilly landscapes of Helsinki are warmed by the gentle humanism and wry humor of Aki Kaurismäki in the first installment of his FINLAND TRILOGY, a deadpan tale of everyday survival in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Misfortune begets misfortune when, in short order, Lauri (Kari Väänänen) loses his job as a tram driver and the restaurant where his wife, Ilona (Kati Outinen), works announces it is closing to make way for a chain. With few job prospects, the two find themselves facing a crisis that tests the strength of their bond.

Aki Kaurismäki returns to France with this sun-kissed utopian parable. One of his most politically resonant films, Le Havre echoes The Man Without a Past’s ruminations on community and resilience, albeit this time (via a hat tip to Carl Dreyer’s Ordet) with a nod to the vagaries of the divine.