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Essential Finnish Cinema

Drifting Clouds (1996)
Aki Kaurismäki · 4 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
The ever-poker-faced Ilona loses her job as a restaurant hostess, as her tram driver husband, Lauri, also finds himself out of work. Together they must hit the streets of Helsinki, facing up to hardship and humiliation in their quest for survival, guided through the gloom by a ray of hope.
Eight Deadly Shots (1972)
Mikko Niskanen · 3 critic votes
Small-scale farmer Pasi shoots four policemen who have come to arrest him for raged drunkenness. Rest of the movie is a long flashback examining the events that finally leads to the tragic shooting. As time goes by, Pasi sinks gradually deeper and deeper into the poverty, gets into trouble with both police and tax officials while family arguments grow more and more serious. Based on a true story.
I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)
Aki Kaurismäki · 2 critic votes
After losing his job and realizing that he is alone in the world, a businessman opts to voluntarily end his life. Lacking courage, he hires a contract killer to do the job. Then, while awaiting his demise, he meets a woman and promptly falls in love.
The Match Factory Girl (1990)
Aki Kaurismäki · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Iris is a shy and dowdy young woman stuck in a dead-end job at a match factory, who dreams of finding love at the local dancehall. Finding herself pregnant after a one-night stand and abandoned by the father, Iris finally decides the time has come to get even and she begins to plot her revenge.
Le Havre (2011)
Aki Kaurismäki · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
In the French harbor city of Le Havre, an elderly shoeshiner with an ailing wife crosses paths with a young African refugee pursued by the police for deportation.
Bad Film (1950)
Felix Forsman · 1 critic vote
Presentation of films that failed in various ways. At the beginning, there is no image other than an audio track, later an overexposed, underexposed, or otherwise failed image.
The White Reindeer (1952)
Erik Blomberg · 1 critic vote
Free on Darkroom, Bloodstream · Streaming on Shudder, Fandor Amazon Channel, Screambox Amazon Channel
A newly-married woman becomes frustrated as her husband, a reindeer herder for an Arctic village, spends much of his time away. Desperate for affection, she visits a shaman who offers a potion that makes her irresistibly desirable, with unexpected and deadly results.
The Count (1971)
Peter von Bagh · 1 critic vote
Pertti Ylermi Lindgren was engaged to 76 women, married none, but took the money of all. Lindgren is the real thing, as far as swindlers go. Peter von Bagh asked him to play himself in a film that would reconstruct some of his greatest moments, i.e. the most flamboyant stunts – and he agreed.
Shadows in Paradise (1986)
Aki Kaurismäki · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Nikander, a rubbish collector and would-be entrepreneur, finds his plans for success dashed when his business associate dies. One evening, he meets Ilona, a down-on-her-luck cashier, in a local supermarket. Falteringly, a bond begins to develop between them.
The Bohemian Life (1992)
Aki Kaurismäki · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Three penniless artists become friends in modern-day Paris: Rodolfo, an Albanian painter with no visa, Marcel, a playwright and magazine editor with no publisher, and Schaunard, a post-modernist composer of execrable noise.
Seven Songs from the Tundra (1999)
Markku Lehmuskallio, Anastasia Lapsui · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Klassiki
An anthology of stories about the indigenous Nenet peoples of the Northern Russian tundra, and how their way of life was disrupted by the advent of Soviet power.
The 3 Rooms of Melancholia (2004)
Pirjo Honkasalo · 1 critic vote
A searing examination of the unrelenting Chechen conflict, observed through the prisms of a Russian military boys academy, a war-torn town and a children's refugee camp.
Little Snow Animal (2009)
Miia Tervo · 1 critic vote
Teenage girl looks for love but doesn't know where to find it.
Socialism (2014)
Peter von Bagh · 1 critic vote
Socialism, the 20th century's greatest dream and source of some of its darkest nightmares. Divided into eighteen chapters which all begin with quotes from left-wing thinkers and writers, Socialism embarks on a chronological journey through 20th century film and social history, starting with images from Louis Lumière's Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895), followed among others by Chaplin's comedy Work (1915), Roberto Rosselini's Rome, Open City (1945) and Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964).
Compartment No. 6 (2021)
Juho Kuosmanen · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Klassiki
A young Finnish woman escapes an enigmatic love affair in Moscow by boarding a train to the arctic port of Murmansk. Forced to share the long ride and a tiny sleeping car with a larger than life Russian miner, the unexpected encounter leads the occupants of Compartment No. 6 to face major truths about human connection.
Fallen Leaves (2023)
Aki Kaurismäki · 1 critic vote
Streaming on MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel
In modern-day Helsinki, two lonely souls in search of love meet by chance in a karaoke bar. However, their path to happiness is beset by obstacles – from lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism, and a charming stray dog.

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Essential Finnish Cinema

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