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.
Janne Hyytiäinen, Maria Järvenhelmi, Maria Heiskanen, Ilkka Koivula
Finland/Germany/France
2006
In Finnish and Russian with English subtitles
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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)
Leading Lights
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A Moment of Innocence
Iranian master filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf stages a filmed reenactment of a political skirmish from his youth. Equal parts autobiographical comedy, Brechtian behind-the-scenes documentary, and metaphysical poem, A Moment of Innocence shines.
Lights in the Dusk
At once both funny and 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 tender.
News From Home
One part city symphony, one part introspective meditation, one part epistolary text, News from Home is a structuralist masterwork by Belgium’s genius of contemplation, Chantal Akerman.
