Born in Orimattila, Finland, in 1957, Aki Kaurismäki makes deadpan, minimalist films about the working class and the dispossessed, with sparse dialogue, saturated colour, rock music and a dry humour. His early Proletariat Trilogy of Shadows in Paradise, Ariel and The Match Factory Girl was followed by Drifting Clouds and The Man Without a Past, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2002. He announced his retirement after The Other Side of Hope (2017) but returned with Fallen Leaves in 2023, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes.
Filmography
- Crime and Punishment (1983)
- Shadows in Paradise (1986)
- Hamlet Goes Business (1987)
- Ariel (1988)
- Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989)
- The Match Factory Girl (1990)
- I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)
- La Vie de Bohème (1992)
- Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana (1994)
- Drifting Clouds (1996)
- Juha (1999)
- The Man Without a Past (2002)
- Lights in the Dusk (2006)
- Le Havre (2011)
- The Other Side of Hope (2017)
- Fallen Leaves (2023)