Koistinen — a preternaturally unlucky and systematically denigrated security guard — sees his life spiral into chaos as he gets involved with the wrong company. To advance the interests of their voracious greed, a gang of kleptocratic thugs move in to exploit Koistinen’s central weakness: his loneliness and longing to connect. While that may sound like the Facebook business model, this is a stinging indictment from Finland’s greatest living ironist.
We are so lucky to watch this! Since its release in 2006, Lights in the Dusk has been excessively difficult to find in digital media. It remains an underappreciated work but, along with (the better-known) The Other Side of Hope (2017), it is one of Kaurismäki’s boldest expressions. At once very funny and very sad, Lights in the Dusk repurposes the cinematic language of film noir and gangster flicks to create a wholly singular proletarian satire of late-stage capitalism. This is Kaurismäki at his most angry and most compassionate.
Community Partner
Janne Hyytiäinen, Maria Järvenhelmi, Maria Heiskanen, Ilkka Koivula
Finland/Germany/France
2006
In Finnish and Russian with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Producer
Aki Kaurismäki
Cinematography
Timo Salminen
Screenwriter
Aki Kaurismäki
Editor
Aki Kaurismäki
Original Music
Carlos Gardel, Giacomo Puccini
Aki Kaurismäki
Filmography: Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989); Drifting Clouds (1996); The Man Without a Past (2002); Le Havre (2011); The Other Side of Hope (2017); Fallen Leaves (2023)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Frankenstein
Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro might have been made for each other. The movie does not disappoint, a ripping yarn of grand adventure, spectacle, hubris, passion and XXL body parts, a tale of the fantastic that rings the imagination. Screening in 35mm.
Predators
"Punk'd for pedophiles." That's what Jimmy Kimmel called Chris Hansen's true crime/reality TV show, To Catch a Predator (2004-07). Two decades on, David Osit examines why the show made such an impact, for good or ill, and sits down with Hansen himself.
The Outcasts
One of earliest examples of "folk horror", The Outcasts (1982) draws on Irish mythology and folktales to eerie effect. Simple Maura is rumoured to have spent the night with the mythical fiddler Scarf Michael, with dire consequences for all... Screening followed by a panel discussion on Irish horror.
Köln 75
The true story behind the greatest solo concert in jazz history, this is Keith Jarrett's legendary 1975 Köln Concert — as organized by 18-year-old rebel music promoter Vera Brandes. Fun, inventive and feminist, it's the Bend It Like Beckham of jazz films.