Kari Väänänen
1953 (72 года)His most challenging role has been the eponymous mafia hitman of Rosso, for which he learned all his lines phonetically, without previously speaking a word of Italian. Kari Väänänen was featured in Star Wreck, a Finnish sci-fi parody where he played the Russian president. He also starred in Jim Jarmusch's 1991 film Night on Earth.
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La Vie de Bohème
Aki Kaurismäki
Matti Pellonpää, Evelyne Didi
Three penniless artists become friends in modern-day Paris: Rodolfo, an Albanian painter with no visa, Marcel, a playwright and magazine editor with no publisher, and Schaunard, a post-modernist composer of execrable noise.
La Vie de Bohème
Drifting Clouds
Aki Kaurismäki
Kati Outinen, Kari Väänänen
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.
Drifting Clouds
Tuntematon sotilas
Rauni Mollberg
Risto Tuorila, Pirkka-Pekka Petelius
Second silver screen adaption of the Finnish war book by Väinö Linna. The story is based on Linna's experiences as an infantry man in the Finnish army during the so called "Continuation War" (1941-1944).
The Unknown Soldier
Zombie ja kummitusjuna
Mika Kaurismäki
Silu Seppälä, Marjo Leinonen
Antti "Zombie" Autiomaa does two things well: play the bass guitar and drink. After several months' sleeping on the streets of Istanbul, he returns to Helsinki where he's called into the army but discharged on mental health grounds after adding turpentine to the officers' soup. Zombie lives bleary-eyed in an apartment off his parents' house where his lonely, unemployed father suffers from heart disease. His girl-friend Marjo has taken up with a hairdresser but comes back to Zombie. His friend Harri hires him as a roadie for his band "Harry and the Mulefukkers" then gives him a chance as a bass player. He has his girl and he has a gig, but can Zombie put the bottle down?
Zombie and the Ghost Train
Häjyt
Aleksi Mäkelä
Samuli Edelmann, Juha Veijonen
Häjyt tells a story of two friends who have a hard time finding their place in the society. Antti and Jussi are released from jail. While they were doing time for bank robbery, the third man involved in the robbery, the one who was not convicted, has become a policeman. He tries to help his friends to settle into the small town in Pohjanmaa, but the boys start a black market liquor business instead. The road seems to lead back to the jail.
The Tough Ones
Christmas Story
Juha Wuolijoki
Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Otto Gustavsson
Hundreds of years ago in Lapland, a little boy named Nikolas loses his family in an accident. The villagers decide to look after the orphaned boy together. Once a year - at Christmas - Nikolas moves to a new home. To show his gratitude, Nikolas decides to make toys for the children of the families as good-bye presents. Over the years, Nikolas's former adoptive families become many, and soon almost every house has presents on its doorstep on Christmas morning. At thirteen, Nikolas is sent to live and work with Iisakki, a grumpy old carpenter, who forbids Nikolas to continue making presents for Christmas. Gradually, however, Nikolas wins Iisakki's trust. Together they begin to look after the Christmas traditional that Nikolas has begun. When the aged Iisakki has to leave Nikolas and move away, the tradition of Christmas presents is once again at risk. Thankfully, Nikolas comes up with a solution that brings children joy every Christmas, even continuing to today.
Christmas Story
Leningrad Cowboys Go America
Aki Kaurismäki
Matti Pellonpää, Kari Väänänen
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.
Leningrad Cowboys Go America
Mestari Cheng
Mika Kaurismäki
Pak Hon Chu, Anna-Maija Tuokko
Cheng, 45, a restaurant owner from China, has travelled with his young son halfway around the world to a remote village in Finland. His wife died recently in an accident, and Cheng wanted to have a break from everything by traveling with his son to see an old Finnish friend who lives on a farm in the countryside of Finland. It’s the most remote place Cheng can imagine with endless forests, thousands of lakes, a country with entire population of one-fifth of Cheng’s home town, Shanghai.
Master Cheng
Calamari Union
Aki Kaurismäki
Timo Eränkö, Kari Heiskanen
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.
Calamari Union
Ambush
Olli Saarela
Peter Franzén, Irina Björklund
It is the summer of 1941 and the Finnish army has been mobilized along the border with Russia. A platoon led by Lt. Eero Perkola is waiting for orders to go on the offensive. The platoon receives orders for a recon mission through the wilderness around the Lieksa lake to search for possible Russian defensive positions.
Ambush
