22.7 | SATURDAY | 21:00

Fallen Leaves is the story of two lonely people, Ansa and Holappa, who meet by chance in the Helsinki night and try to find the first, only, and ultimate love of their lives. Their path towards this honorable goal is clouded by the man’s alcoholism, lost phone numbers, not knowing each other’s names or addresses, and life’s general tendency to place obstacles in the way of those seeking happiness. This gloomy working-class romantic comedy is the fourth part of Aki Kaurismäki’s working-class trilogy, after Shadows in Paradise (1986), Ariel (1988), and The Match Factory Girl (1990). This was Kaurismäki’s fifth film in competition at Cannes and after Grand Prix for The Man Without a Past in 2002, Fallen Leaves won the Cannes Jury Prize this year.

AKI KAURISMÄKI, the chronicler of Finnish melancholy with an absurd twist, is one of the leading figures of European author cinema. He also won a Silver Bear at Berlinale for The Other Side of Hope (2017) and many remember fondly his road movie Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989).