Aki Kaurismäki is a genre unto himself. If you’ve seen Le Havre or The Other Side of Hope then you know what to expect, and if you haven’t, they’re charming, deadpan comedies about working class people, often melancholic or just alcoholic, but goodhearted and kind to dogs (there’s always a dog). In Fallen Leaves, Ansi (Alma Pöysti) meets Holappa (Jussi Vatanen), and these two lonely souls feel they are meant for each other, but Fate seems to have other ideas… From this simple love story, Kaurismäki crafts a poignant and pertinent comedy which picked up the Jury Prize at Cannes.
Jury Prize, Cannes 2023
Actually-funny and not just arthouse-funny […] Fallen Leaves is another of Kaurismäki’s beguiling and delightful cinephile comedies, featuring foot-tapping rock’n’roll. It’s romantic and sweet-natured, in a deadpan style that in no way undermines or ironises the emotions involved and with some sharp things to say about contemporary politics. Fallen Leaves is a film with a big heart, as absurd and cartoony as it may be, it fills you with a feel-good glow.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen, Janne Hyytiäinen, Nuppu Koivu
Finland/Germany
2023
Special Presentations
In Finnish with English subtitles
Alcohol Abuse
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Aki Kaurismäki, Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff, Reinhard Brundig
Screenwriter
Aki Kaurismäki
Cinematography
Timo Salminen
Editor
Samu Heikkilä
Production Design
Ville Grönroos
Director
Aki Kaurismäki
Along with his brother Mika, Aki Kaurismäki’s output constitutes roughly one fifth of the Finnish film industry’s feature film production since the early 1980s. A former film critic, Kaurismäki found international acclaim for his deadpan, slowburn humanist comedies. Both The Man Without a Past (2002) and Fallen Leaves (2023) won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes.
Filmography: Shadows in Paradise (1986); Drifting Clouds (1996); The Man Without a Past (2002); Le Havre (2011); The Other Side of Hope (2017)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Love
This warm, thoughtful piece offers shrewd comic observations on modern dating as it trains a quizzical eye on the trysts of a female doctor, Marianne (Andrea Bræin Hovig), and her colleague, a gay male nurse, Tor (Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen).
Sex
Two chimney sweeps living in heterosexual marriages find their views on sexuality and gender challenged by a series of unexpected events. In a set of sharply scripted conversations, both men confront heretofore unexplored aspects of their identity.
The Road to Patagonia
A travelogue, an eco doc, an adventure movie and a love story, The Road to Patagonia chronicles filmmaker and ecologist Mayy Hannon's 50,000 km expedition from Alaska to the tip of Chile (via Vancouver Island), on motorbike, horse, and surfboard.
Kit Eakle’s Jaz’n’theViolin String Band
Kit Eakle's 'Jaz'N'theViolin' String Band pay tribute to Louie Bluie, one of many fiddle players who gave birth to the new sounds of jazz and blues at the beginning of the twentieth century, followed by Terry Zwigoff's documentary portrait.
3 Faces
Iranian filmmaker Panahi and actress Behnaz Jafari, both playing themselves, receive a video in which a distraught teenaged girl, whose acting dreams have been quashed appears to kill herself. Panahi and Jafari decide to investigate...