The tragicomedy Fallen Leaves by Finnish film legend Aki Kaurismäki, whose main characters find love despite all the tricks of fate, is being widely released. Why you should watch this movie, read our review.
About the director
“Fallen Leaves is the 20th film by arguably Finland’s most famous director, Aki Kaurismäki, and it’s been a long six years since his previous work. In 2017, he announced that he was ending his career, preferring to leave cinema on a major note – his then film The Other Side of Hope was warmly received by critics and won several prestigious awards, including the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. However, to the great joy of moviegoers, the director changed his mind.
Kaurismäki released his first film in 1983. The crime drama Crime and Punishment was a loose adaptation of the novel of the same name by the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, the events of which were transferred to the contemporary Helsinki of that time. In Finland, the young director’s film immediately attracted attention, winning several awards at the Jussi National Film Awards.
However, Aki’s real international recognition came only in 1996 with his film Drifting Clouds, which won the Palme d’Or and the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.
This film was the first in his famous Finland trilogy. Two other films are the tragicomedy The Man Without a Past (2002), which also won two Cannes awards, and the crime drama Lights in the Dusk (2006).
It is in these films that the director’s signature style is best observed: life stories about small people who find themselves in difficult situations by the will of fate. Sometimes they manage to get out of it and get their happy ending, and sometimes not. In fact, in many ways, the movie Fallen Leaves can be called a kind of continuation of this trilogy.
What the movie is about
The plot of the tragicomedy “Fallen Leaves” is centered on two lonely souls, a man Holappa and a woman Ansa, whose lives are not going well.
She works at a low-paying job in a supermarket, from which she is soon fired, and during the course of the film she will change several more jobs. Ansa lives alone in her inherited apartment, where the furniture seems to have not been changed since the previous owners. She is so lonely that she only has enough dishes for one person, so when she has a date, she has to buy another set, only to throw it away when the date turns out to be a failure.
He, too, is interrupted by various part-time jobs, from which he is periodically fired because of his drinking. He tells his friend that he drinks because he is depressed, and he is depressed because he drinks. It’s a vicious circle. His housing situation is even worse – he lives in a trailer for construction workers, or in a social dormitory.
And then one day these two meet by chance in a karaoke bar. And although a spark flashes between them, they face numerous obstacles on the way to happiness – but despite everything, they seem to be doomed to be together.
What does Ukraine have to do with it?
The film is shot in such a way that it is very difficult to understand what time it is about. The characters wear old-fashioned clothes, they go to old bars and an old-school movie theater, and the furniture in the houses is also old. However, there is one bitter thing that clearly indicates that the events are taking place in our time – Ukraine is repeatedly mentioned in the film: between the love affairs, the characters periodically turn on the radio, from where they hear news about the Russian-Ukrainian war. Whether it’s the bombed-out Mariupol, the attack on a hypermarket in Kremenchuk, or attacks on energy infrastructure, the film’s plot reveals different stages of Russia’s terrorization of Ukraine as it progresses.
The film’s director put it this way: “I couldn’t make a movie during the war without commenting on it, so I’m commenting on it from the radio. It’s a love story because I couldn’t do anything else, because this bloody war needs love stories now.”
By the way, this moment leaves a somewhat bitter feeling – at first, Ansa listens attentively to the radio, and then she starts to change the channel irritably. Doesn’t it remind you of anything?
Reaction to the film
The world premiere of The Fallen Leaves took place in the main competition of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize, making it the fourth award for Aki Kaurismäki at this most prestigious film festival in the world.
The film was also named the best film of 2023 by the International Film Press Association (FIPRESCI).
The film also received awards at the Chicago International Film Festival (USA) and the CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival (Hungary).
Meanwhile, Finland has nominated Fallen Leaves for an Oscar in the Best International Film category, and this is not the first time that Aki Kaurismäki’s films have been nominated for this prestigious award. However, he has not won any awards so far.
Currently, the film has a score of 7.6 out of 10 on IMDb, while on Rotten Tomatoes it has 98% approval from critics with a “Certified Fresh” rating. At the same time, on Metacritic, moviegoers gave it 79 out of 100 points, which corresponds to the characterization “generally positive reviews.”
Our verdict
Moviegoers are spoiled by Finnish cinema very rarely, so it is quite logical that our audience is cautious about all new releases from this country. And for good reason.
“The Fallen Leaves is a rather touching story about loneliness and life on the edge, which, however, is full of hope for a happy ending, and even the hard blows of fate are presented here with humor.
And don’t let the slow pace of Nordic cinema scare you – the events in The Fallen Leaf also develop quite calmly, but thanks to the apt life jokes that can be easily disassembled into quotes and charismatic actors, time flies by very quickly and easily.
The overall score is 7.5 out of 10 points.
