Fallen Leaves

Aki Kaurismäki returns to our cinema screens with his perfectly measured romance that won the Jury Prize at Cannes.

Supermarket cashier Ansa (Alma Pöysti) spends her humdrum existence in present-day Helsinki eating microwave dinners alone at home, while news of the unfolding Ukraine war plays over the radio in the background. The small joys in life are found in her regular trips to the local cinema. That is until a fateful bus stop meeting with the hangdog alcoholic Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) kicks off a droll romance, punctuated by misplaced phone numbers, tearful reunions, karaoke and a deep love for Jim Jarmusch movies.

Rounding out what Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki has labelled his Proletariat Trilogy (although this is the fourth in that unconnected series) and winner of the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize, Fallen Leaves is a warm and tender tragicomedy about two lost souls that find love in a hopeless place. All of this however is presented with the lightest of touches and delivered in Kaurismäki’s trademark style and pitch-perfect deadpan acting from its two leads who find humour and a little bit of hope in all the misery.