Directed by Aki Kaurismäki • 1992 • France
Starring André Wilms, Matti Pellonpää, Karl Väänänen
This 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 Henri Murger’s influential mid-nineteenth-century book “Scènes de la vie de bohème” (the basis for the opera “La bohème”), the film features a marvelous trio of Kaurismäki regulars—André Wilms, Matti Pellonpää, and Karl Väänänen—as a writer, painter, and composer who scrape by together, sharing in life’s daily absurdities. Gorgeously shot in black and white, LA VIE DE BOHÈME is a vibrantly scrappy rendition of a beloved tale.
Directed by Aki Kaurismäki • 1994 • Finland
Living in Mexico with a top-ten hit under their belts, the Leningrad Cowboys have fallen on hard times. When they head north to rejoin their manager (Kaurismäki mainstay Matti Pellonpää) for a gig in Coney Island, he has turned into a self-proclaimed...
Directed by Aki Kaurismäki • 2011 • Finland, France
Starring Blondin Miguel, André Wilms
In this warmhearted comic yarn from Aki Kaurismäki, fate throws the young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a kindly old bohemian who shines shoes for a liv...
Directed by Aki Kaurismäki • 2017 • Finland
This wry, melancholic comedy from Aki Kaurismäki, a response to the ongoing global refugee crisis, follows two people searching for a place to call home. Khaled (Sherwan Haji), a displaced Syrian, lands in Helsinki as a stowaway; meanwhile, middle-ag...
