FALLEN LEAVES

Aki Kaurismäki

Finland

- 2023

The tale of two lonely people who run into one another by chance one night in Helsinki and try to find the first, only and ultimate love of their lives. Their road towards this honourable goal will be overshadowed by the man’s drinking, lost phone numbers and life’s general tendency to throw curveballs on the path of those looking for happiness.

Aki Kaurismäki

A self-taught filmmaker with a unique minimalist style, he was born in Orimattila (Finland) in 1957. He has directed a dozen short films and around twenty feature films, including timeless works such as ‘Crime and Punishment’ (1983), ‘The Match Factory Girl’ (1990), ‘Drifting Clouds’ (1996), ‘Juha’ (1999), ‘The Man Without a Past’ (2002), ‘Le Havre’ (2011) and ‘The Other Side of Hope’ (2017), which won awards at the most important international festivals. He has also participated in the collective films ‘Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet’ (2002), ‘Visions of Europe’ (2004), ‘To Each His Own Cinema’ (2007) and ‘Historic Centre’ (2012). ‘Fallen Leaves’ (2023) premiered at Cannes, where it won the Jury Prize, and was awarded by critics the Grand Prix Fipresci for the best film of 2023.