Directed by Aki Kaurismäki • 1988 • Finland
In Kaurismäki's drolly existential crime drama, a coal miner named Taisto (Turo Pajala) attempts to leave behind a provincial life of inertia and economic despair, only to get into ever deeper trouble. Yet a minor-key romance with a hilariously dispassionate meter maid (Susanna Haavisto) might provide a light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Ariel, which boasts a terrific soundtrack of Finnish tango and Baltic pop music and lovely cinematography by Kaurismäki's longtime cameraman Timo Salmimen, put its director on the international map.
Up Next in Directed by Aki Kaurismäki
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Leningrad Cowboys Go America
Directed by Aki Kaurismäki • 1989 • Finland
A struggling Siberian rock band leaves the lonely tundra to tour the United States because, as they're told, "they'll buy anything there." Aki Kaurismäki's winningly aloof farce follows the musicians as they bravely make their way across the New Worl...
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The Match Factory Girl
Directed by Aki Kaurismäki • 1990 • Finland, Sweden
Kaurismäki took his penchant for despairing character studies to unspeakably grim depths in the shockingly entertaining The Match Factory Girl. Kati Outinen is memorably impenetrable as Iris, whose grinding days as a cog in a factory wheel, a...
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La vie de bohème
Directed by Aki Kaurismäki • 1992 • France
Starring André Wilms, Matti Pellonpää, Karl VäänänenThis deadpan tragicomedy about a group of impoverished, outcast artists living the bohemian life in Paris is among the most beguiling films by Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki. Based on stories from He...
