Fallen Leaves (2023)
Director: Aki Kaurismäki Run Time: 81 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2023
Starring: Alma Pöysti, Anna Karjalainen, Janne Hyytiäinen, Jussi Vatanen, Kaisa Karjalainen
Country: Finland, Germany
Language: Finnish with English subtitles
About the film:
Winner, Grand Jury Prize, 2023 Cannes Film Festival
Winner, FIPRESCI Grand Prix 2023 for Best Film of the Year
Finland’s entry for Best International Feature at the 96th Academy Awards
Nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress (Alma Pöysti)
Award-winning filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki makes a masterful return with a timeless, hopeful and ultimately satisfying love story about two lonely souls’ path to happiness – and the numerous hurdles they encounter along the way. Set in contemporary Helsinki, and shot through with Kaurismäki’s typically playful, idiosyncratic style and deadpan humor, this tender romantic tragicomedy is a timely reminder of the potency of movie-going from one of cinema’s living legends.
“Kaurismäki never, ever misses the mark. Even by his high standards, Fallen Leaves is close to perfect.”
—David Sims, The Atlantic
About the filmmaker:
Aki Kaurismäki is an acclaimed Finnish film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style and extremely dry sense of humor. His most acclaimed film has been The Man Without a Past (2002), which won the Grand Prix and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category in 2003. His feature films include his international breakthrough film Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989) as well as the award-winning Drifting Clouds (1996), Le Havre (2011) and The Other Side of Hope (2017), which won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival.
His 20th film, Fallen Leaves (2023) premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury prize. The film was selected as Finland’s official entry for Best International Feature at the 2024 Academy Awards. Among other accolades, Kaurismäki also became the second director, after Paul Thomas Anderson, to win a third FIPRESCI Grand Prix.
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