Aki Kaurismäki facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Aki Kaurismäki
Aki Kaurismäki at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival
Born	Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (1957-04-04) 4 April 1957 (age 68) Orimattila, Finland
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter

Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (born 4 April 1957) is a famous Finnish film director and screenwriter. He is known for making movies that have won many awards, like Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002), Le Havre (2011), The Other Side of Hope (2017), and Fallen Leaves (2023). He also directed the well-known film Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). Many people consider him Finland's most famous film director.

Aki Kaurismäki's Career in Film

After studying media at the University of Tampere, Aki Kaurismäki worked different jobs like a bricklayer and a postman. He then became interested in movies, first writing about them as a critic, and later writing and directing them.

He started his film career by helping his older brother, Mika Kaurismäki, write movies and by acting in them. Aki even played the main character in Mika's film The Liar (1981). Together, the brothers started a film company called Villealfa Filmproductions. They also created the Midnight Sun Film Festival, which is a film event.

Aki Kaurismäki directed his first movie by himself in 1983. It was called Crime and Punishment and was based on a famous book, but set in modern Helsinki. He became known around the world after his film Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989) was released. A film critic from The New York Times, Vincent Canby, called him "an original" and "one of cinema's most distinctive and unique new artists" in 1992.

Aki Kaurismäki's Personal Life

In 1989, Aki Kaurismäki and his wife, Paula Oinonen, moved to Portugal. He joked that there was "no place left" in Helsinki where he could film. He still lives in Portugal today.

In Helsinki, Aki Kaurismäki is part-owner of a place called Andorra. This building has a movie theater, several bars, and a pool hall. It even has a giant poster from the movie L’Argent and a jukebox from his own film Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses.

Aki Kaurismäki's Film Style

Kaurismäki is known for his very simple and direct filmmaking style. He is often called an "auteur" because he usually writes, directs, produces, and edits his own films. This means his movies have his unique "drollery and deadpan" (dry and serious) humor.

In his films, the camera usually stays still. Events are shown in a straightforward way, and characters often face challenges alone. Even though they go through sad times and difficulties, the characters usually don't give up and find a way to survive.

Many of Kaurismäki's films are set in Helsinki, Finland's capital. Examples include Calamari Union and a group of films called the Proletariat trilogy (Shadows in Paradise, Ariel, and The Match Factory Girl). His movies often show Helsinki in a realistic, not always romantic, way. Characters sometimes talk about wanting to leave Helsinki. Some end up in Mexico (in Ariel), while others go to Estonia (in films like Shadows in Paradise and Calamari Union). Kaurismäki also likes to use characters, items, and settings that remind viewers of the 1960s and 1970s.

He has been influenced by other directors like Jean-Pierre Melville, Robert Bresson, and Yasujirō Ozu. His movies also have a funny side, similar to films by Jim Jarmusch. Jim Jarmusch even appeared in Kaurismäki's film Leningrad Cowboys Go America.

Aki Kaurismäki used to be against digital cinematography, calling it "a devil's invention." However, in 2014, he changed his mind. He said he decided to make his films available digitally so that more people could watch them.

Aki Kaurismäki's Political Views

Aki Kaurismäki often uses his films to share his thoughts on important social issues.

In 2019, he joined many other cultural figures in supporting the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. They believed that the party's plans would put the needs of people and the planet first, rather than focusing only on money for a few.

Kaurismäki has also made films about the European migrant crisis, showing the difficult parts of this real-world issue. He wanted to help change how people in Finland thought about refugees. He said that when many people from Iraq came to Finland, some Finns saw it "like a war." He was worried by this reaction and decided to make a film about it. He also said he respected German Chancellor Angela Merkel for being interested in solving the refugee problem.

In an interview in 2007, Kaurismäki spoke about Finland's refugee policy. He felt it was "shameful" because Finland often refused to give refugee status to people, even those from dangerous places like Darfur, Iraq, and Somalia. He believed Finland's policy was not as good as other Nordic countries.

His films are also influenced by his views on how Finland treats its working class. He believes that the way society is set up, with different social classes and unequal money, makes lower-class workers seem like easily replaced parts of an old system.

Aki Kaurismäki's Filmography

Feature films

Documentaries

Short films

Music Videos

As an actor

• The Liar (1981)
• The Worthless (1982)
• Huhtikuu on kuukausista julmin (1983)
• Apinan vuosi (1983)
• Viimeiset rotanrahat (1985)
• Calamari Union (1985)
• Ylösnousemus (1985)
• Shadows in Paradise (1986)
• Rocky VI (1986)
• I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)
• Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (1994)
• Iron Horsemen (1994)
• Mustasilmä-Susanna ja lepakkoluolan aarre (1996)
• Aaltra (2004)
• Vandaleyne (2015)

Awards and Protests

Aki Kaurismäki's film Ariel (1988) won an award at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival.

His most famous film, The Man Without a Past, won the Grand Prix (a major award) at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003. However, Kaurismäki chose not to go to the Oscar ceremony. He felt it was not right to celebrate in a country that was involved in a war.

Kaurismäki's next film, Lights in the Dusk, was also chosen to be Finland's nominee for the Oscars. But again, Kaurismäki refused the nomination and boycotted the awards. This was his way of protesting against the foreign policy of then-U.S. President George W. Bush. In 2002, he also boycotted the New York Film Festival to show support for Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. Kiarostami had not been given a U.S. visa in time for the festival.

In 2017, Kaurismäki's film The Other Side of Hope won the Silver Bear for Best Director award at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. At that festival, he said he would stop directing films. However, he soon returned to filmmaking and started filming Fallen Leaves in 2022, which premiered in 2023. Kaurismäki became only the second director to win the FIPRESCI Grand Prix three times.

List of awards

Cannes Jury Prize
2023 Fallen Leaves
Silver Bear
2017 The Other Side of Hope
Cannes Grand Prix
2002 The Man Without a Past
Cannes Ecumenical Jury Special Mention
1996 Drifting Clouds
Cannes Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
2002 The Man Without a Past
FIPRESCI Award
2011 Le Havre
FIPRESCI Grand Prix
2002 The Man Without a Past
2017 The Other Side of Hope
2023 Fallen Leaves
Jussi for Best Film
2006 Lights in the Dusk
Jussi for Best Debut Film
1983 Crime and Punishment
Jussi for Best Script
1983 Crime and Punishment
1996 Drifting Clouds
2002 The Man Without a Past
2011 Le Havre
Jussi for Best Direction
1990 The Match Factory Girl
1992 La vie de bohème
1996 Drifting Clouds
2002 The Man Without a Past
São Paulo Audience Award for Best Feature
1996 Drifting Clouds

See Also

In Spanish: Aki Kaurismäki para niños

• Finnish cinema
• List of Finnish submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• Klaus Härö