Sakari Kuosmanen

Christmas is-a-jingling to Lapland in 1984. Niina, a single mother, is fired from her job in a bakery and drifts into the middle of an international missile crisis in Inari when the Soviet Union shoots a missile across the Finnish border.

The story of two lonely people who meet each other by chance in the Helsinki night and try to find the first, only, and ultimate love of their lives. Their path towards this honorable goal is clouded by the man's alcoholism, lost phone numbers, not knowing each other's names or addresses, and life's general tendency to place obstacles in the way of those seeking their happiness.

An overweight boy who was a bullied at school grew up to become a beloved comedian, folk artist Jope Ruonansuu. He was a versatile entertainer, but above all an impressionist, able to imitate more than 150 characters from the ruling class. Jope's journey was a natural extension of the post-war "Rillumarei" -culture. He broke through when the monoculturalism was at its most vibrant and grew in popularity as it began to crumble. With weight loss surgery, Jope sought a healthier life, but also to shed the extra pounds and childhood traumas. After the surgery, he was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, but continued to fight, developing a number of different projects, including an anti-bullying campaign together with the President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö. The project was to culminate in a joint visit to Syväkangas school, in Jope's home town of Kemi. Jope passed away before then, but Niinistö kept his promise.

The story of Kari Tapio, who sang his way into the hearts of the Finns in the 70's and whose popularity lasted until his death in 2010.

The Judge (Mait Malmsten) is a man who represents strict rules and laws in the courtroom. However, his own personal life is an absolute mess. After the judge makes a decision to give a long prison sentence to a woman, the woman’s brother (Märt Avandi) starts following the judge to change his mind about the verdict. The judge stays adamant. The verdict is final. A conflict takes place between the men, resulting in the judge suddenly becoming a criminal himself. Unable to confess his crime, the judge escapes to Finland, where a series of comedic twists and turns lead him to a number of strange people and comical situations. However, the shadows of his dark deeds keep haunting him. To leave his dark crime behind and to fix his earlier decisions, the judge returns home.

The mystical and thrilling drama asks what sort of reality can give our life meaning. The film tells the story of Pia (38), an ophthalmologist, whose marriage has recently ended because she was not able to have children. As she strives to move forward with her life, Pia learns the unknown but also finds her inner strength. Unexpectedly, her deepest wish to become a mother materializes, but not quite in the way she imagined it.

A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.

A sort of "Divorce Finnish Style," Mika Kaurismäki's rambunctious comedy, The House of Branching Love , recounts the breakup of a thirty-something professional couple - Juhani, a family therapist, and his wife, Tuula, a successful business trainer.

This rollicking sports comedy from Finnish director Markku Polonen follows the exploits of Seppo 'Sladi' Pesonen, an ex-top-tiered race car driver now reduced to instructing students at a driving school. To relieve the monotony of this undesired career, Pesonen builds "Team Susan," a road rally team based at Pekkarinen's Garage in the Finnish countryside. Soon, Sladi's nephew Luumu arrives from Helsinki and learns of the team, his enthusiasm skyrockets and he hops on board with the assist of mechanic Suko. Yet the men encounter Machiavellian sabotage at the hands of the vile Torppo, the owner of the lot that contains Pekkarinen's Garage, who is determined to interfere with the plans of Team Susan.

When their bootlegging father ends up in jail, four twenty-something brothers need money to pay his debts to local crooks. Next, their 9-year-old half-sister is dumped on their doorstep by her prostitute mother. A karaoke set helps reveal that the little girl is quite a singer, just as a talent contest for children is coming up on national television offering more than enough money to the winner.

A man arrives in Helsinki and gets beaten up so severely he develops amnesia. Unable to remember his name or anything from his past life, he cannot get a job or an apartment, so he starts living on the outskirts of the city and slowly starts putting his life back on track.

A farmer's wife is seduced into running away from her stolid older husband by a city slicker, who enslaves her in a brothel.

Tram driver Lauri loses his job. Shortly later, the restaurant where his wife Ilona works as a headwaitress is closed. Too proud, to receive money from the social welfare system, they hardly try to find new jobs. But they are completely unlucky and clumsy, one disaster is followed by the next. Finally, their courage, confidence, and their unbreakable love triumph over the fate.

Bad Trip, a biker who has been freshly inducted into a gang, flees from them after stealing one of their bikes.

A 57 minute documentary of a Helsinki concert featuring the Leningrad Cowboys and the Alexandrov Red Army Choir and Ballet, who collaborate on a number of US Rock songs sung in English (like "Sweet Home, Alabama") as well as more traditional Russian songs like the "Volga Boatman".

An anthology of 5 different cab drivers in 5 American and European cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.

The Leningrad Cowboys, a group of Siberian musicians, and their manager, travel to America seeking fame and fortune. As they cross the country, trying to get to a wedding in Mexico, they are followed by the village idiot, who wishes to join the band.

A lawyer pays a visit to Matti Ojanperä (Matti Pellonpää), a bum living under a bridge in the Helsinki harbour, to inform him that he is about to inherit an American aunt of his. The sum 1,000,000 Fmk would be his, if only he meets the qualifications set by his aunt. He must show that he is capable of 'living properly' and possessing a 'respectable occupation and a family he can support'. Otherwise the money would go to a foundation the chairman of which the lawyer himself happens to be!

Taisto Kasurinen is a Finnish coal miner whose father has just committed suicide and who is framed for a crime he did not commit. In jail, he starts to dream about leaving the country and starting a new life. He escapes from prison but things don't go as planned...

Alex is a Finnish taxi driver in Berlin. One evening pits two men feel comfortable in his taxi with a briefcase full of money, but unfortunately for Alex's money stolen and a group of gangsters are at the nape of the two. Soon it comes to shooting, and when the two men being killed, is good advice costly for the beleaguered driver. "Helsinki Napoli All Night Long" is Mika Kaurismäki's first major European production. The film features a host of famous names in the cast: The legendary film director Samuel Fuller (The Big Red One), actor Eddie Constantine (Alphaville, Europe), cult directors Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas) and Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man).

A Finnish film version of Macbeth. Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.

A member of the rock band Leningrad Cowboys escapes from prison and starts looking for his girlfriend.

An episode in the life of Nikander, a garbage man, involving the death of a co-worker, an affair and much more.

A new ice age is coming to England. All energy sources have been depleted and despair is taking over the earth. The young king decides to use his last trump card before his power collapses and anarchy reigns over the island kingdom.

Not to be confused with any of the sequels to Sylvester Stallone's classic Oscar-winning Rocky, this short film from Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki is actually meant as a parody of the late Cold War-era Rocky IV, which saw Stallone's character taking on a juiced-up Russian fighter played by Dolph Lundgren. In this 1986 send-up, Rock'y, played by Silu Seppala, goes head to head with Soviet Igor (Sakari Kuosmanen) and loses.

Calamari Union is an allegorical movie that tells the story of sixteen men all of whom are called Frank (inspired by Frank Armoton) apart from a single confrere, Pekka. Collectively the Franks and Pekka are unhappy with the perceived oppression they face in their district of Helsinki, Kallio, and decide to move to another, Eira, imagining it to be an unspoiled place where people can live lives of dignity. The journey is an ironic one given that both districts are not so far apart. In this spirit, their journey across the city takes on epic proportions with each of the travellers gradually falling by the wayside due to such travails as marriage, work, and death. In its entirety the film is a wry discussion of humanity within a system that regards humans as subservient components.