Raja 1918 (2007) - Lauri Törhönen

An emotive historical drama that shows the difficulties of setting a border with Russia after the Finnish Civil War. Directed by Lauri Törhöhen, and with script of Aleksi Bardy, Raja 1918 is one of the most ambitious projects of Finnish cinema during last year; an epic historical drama that narrates the times of the formation of the new border with Russia after the victory of the Whites in the fratricide Finnish Civil War. To that area is sent a young official of the Finnish army, Carl von Munck (Martin Bahne) who finds himself alienated in a rural area that has had contact with Russia, with no understanding of official borders, for generations. There he will meet and fall in love with a teacher, Minna Haapkylä that happens to hide and be the girlfriend of one of the most wanted outlaws left from the civil confrontation, the wounded Tommi Korpela.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847759/

http://rapidshare.com/files/116762974/R18.2007.DVDRip.Xvid-iAPULA.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/116771614/R18.2007.DVDRip.Xvid-iAPULA.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/116809958/R18.2007.DVDRip.Xvid-iAPULA.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/116818491/R18.2007.DVDRip.Xvid-iAPULA.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/116826988/R18.2007.DVDRip.Xvid-iAPULA.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/116835237/R18.2007.DVDRip.Xvid-iAPULA.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/116843611/R18.2007.DVDRip.Xvid-iAPULA.part7.rar

or

http://rapidshare.com/files/132987963/Raja1918_silva_romaniainedit.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/132988838/Raja1918_silva_romaniainedit.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/132989675/Raja1918_silva_romaniainedit.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/132990575/Raja1918_silva_romaniainedit.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/132991458/Raja1918_silva_romaniainedit.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/132992321/Raja1918_silva_romaniainedit.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/132993215/Raja1918_silva_romaniainedit.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/132993502/Raja1918_silva_romaniainedit.part8.rar

Pass: silva

Koti-ikävä (Homesick)(2005) - Petri Kotwica

Rating: 6.4/10 (225 votes)
Runtime: 85 min
Language: Finnish With English Subtitle
Country: Finland
Color: Color
IMDb Link:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472536/

Director: Petri Kotwica
Cast:
Julius Lavonen ... Sami
Tarja Heinula ... Marjo
Janne Virtanen ... Taneli
Labinot Bajgora ... Valon
Hannu Hurme ... Rude
Mirjami Iho ... Reetta
Heini Kaasalainen ... Tiia
Emilia Kokko ... Kristiina
Meiju Lampinen ... Jonna
Marjut Maristo ... Taru
Abshir Sheik Nur ... Jamal
Sirpa Riuttala ... Veera

Description: Novice helmer Petri Kotwica's success in capturing the inner turmoil of an institutionalized teen is almost enough for viewers to forgive his overactive camera, though the deliberately unattractive, yellowed patina that colors "Homesick" pushes the feel of an unduly harsh world a bit too far. Despite flaws, this engrossing exploration, combined with a charismatic lead and a limited running time, make pic worth a look. An active fest life has been rewarded with occasional prizes.
Tall and lanky, with long locks of hair he uses as a protective screen, Sami (Julius Lavonen) has been transported to the teen ward of a mental institution with a broken arm and major psychological trauma. Placed under suicide watch, he refuses to speak either to his nurse Taneli (Janne Virtanen) or his peers.
When Sami's uptight mother Marjo (Tarja Heinula) comes to take him home, the shrinks refuse to discharge him. After two weeks, Marjo returns, but this time Sami himself asks to stay in the asylum. Flashbacks gradually clue the audience into the home life the disturbed teen is anxious to push away.
When Sami's parents split, he was a normal high schooler. But Marjo's inability to accept her divorce led to rapidly debilitating insecurities that reduced her to a drunken haze of self-pity, forcing Sami to parent his increasingly unstable mother.
Lavonen's physical transformation, punctuated by violent outbursts, is especially well handled, his body language in the early days at the asylum both self-protective and rock firm. As the mother from hell, Heinula is edgy and barely in control.
Lensing is most likely to divide opinion, more yellow and white than color and wallowing in ugliness. Kotwica signals early flashbacks by tossing the camera around as if it's caught in an earthquake, and hand-held jiggles are used with more zeal than discretion. With its graffiti-like credits and loud music mix incorporating hip hop, metal and hard rock, he's obviously going for the youth audience, but the untamed feel works against the story's real power.

Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/142656043/Homesick.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142656262/Homesick.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142656330/Homesick.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142664996/Homesick.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142665079/Homesick.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142665119/Homesick.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142675486/Homesick.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142674465/Homesick.part08.rar

Rar Password: None

Lübeck Nordic Film Days
2005 Won Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Petri Kotwica

Official site

http://www.koti-ikava.com/

Koti-ikävä (Homesick)(2005) - Petri Kotwica

Rating: 6.4/10 (225 votes)
Runtime: 85 min
Language: Finnish With English Subtitle
Country: Finland
Color: Color
IMDb Link:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472536/

Director: Petri Kotwica
Cast:
Julius Lavonen ... Sami
Tarja Heinula ... Marjo
Janne Virtanen ... Taneli
Labinot Bajgora ... Valon
Hannu Hurme ... Rude
Mirjami Iho ... Reetta
Heini Kaasalainen ... Tiia
Emilia Kokko ... Kristiina
Meiju Lampinen ... Jonna
Marjut Maristo ... Taru
Abshir Sheik Nur ... Jamal
Sirpa Riuttala ... Veera

Description: Novice helmer Petri Kotwica's success in capturing the inner turmoil of an institutionalized teen is almost enough for viewers to forgive his overactive camera, though the deliberately unattractive, yellowed patina that colors "Homesick" pushes the feel of an unduly harsh world a bit too far. Despite flaws, this engrossing exploration, combined with a charismatic lead and a limited running time, make pic worth a look. An active fest life has been rewarded with occasional prizes.
Tall and lanky, with long locks of hair he uses as a protective screen, Sami (Julius Lavonen) has been transported to the teen ward of a mental institution with a broken arm and major psychological trauma. Placed under suicide watch, he refuses to speak either to his nurse Taneli (Janne Virtanen) or his peers.
When Sami's uptight mother Marjo (Tarja Heinula) comes to take him home, the shrinks refuse to discharge him. After two weeks, Marjo returns, but this time Sami himself asks to stay in the asylum. Flashbacks gradually clue the audience into the home life the disturbed teen is anxious to push away.
When Sami's parents split, he was a normal high schooler. But Marjo's inability to accept her divorce led to rapidly debilitating insecurities that reduced her to a drunken haze of self-pity, forcing Sami to parent his increasingly unstable mother.
Lavonen's physical transformation, punctuated by violent outbursts, is especially well handled, his body language in the early days at the asylum both self-protective and rock firm. As the mother from hell, Heinula is edgy and barely in control.
Lensing is most likely to divide opinion, more yellow and white than color and wallowing in ugliness. Kotwica signals early flashbacks by tossing the camera around as if it's caught in an earthquake, and hand-held jiggles are used with more zeal than discretion. With its graffiti-like credits and loud music mix incorporating hip hop, metal and hard rock, he's obviously going for the youth audience, but the untamed feel works against the story's real power.

Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/142656043/Homesick.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142656262/Homesick.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142656330/Homesick.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142664996/Homesick.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142665079/Homesick.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142665119/Homesick.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142675486/Homesick.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142674465/Homesick.part08.rar

Rar Password: None

Lübeck Nordic Film Days
2005 Won Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Petri Kotwica

Official site

http://www.koti-ikava.com/

Sotalapset ( War Children) (2003) - Erja Dammert

Rating: 6.7/10 (19 votes)
Runtime: 93 min
Language: Finnish , Swedish With English Subtitle
Country: Finland
Color: Black and White | Color
IMDb Link:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0392785/

Director: Erja Dammert
Cast:
Sirkka Artman ... Herself
Riitta Grundel-Koskinen ... Herself
Jorma Hauru ... Himself
Irmeli Heino ... Herself
Pentti Käppi ... Himself
Marja Kinos ... Herself
Jouko Lehtonen ... Himself

Description: During World War II some 70,000 Finnish children (Finnish: sotalapset) were evacuated from Finland to Scandinavia, chiefly to Sweden. Most were evacuated during the Continuation War to ease the situation for their parents who set out to rebuild their homes in the re-conquered Karelia returning from the evacuation of Finnish Karelia. The first surge of evacuees arrived, however, during the Winter War when the Finns had reasons to fear a humanitarian catastrophe following the expected Soviet occupation.

In retrospect, the evacuation has been considered psychologically flawed, as the separations turned out to inflict a far greater damage on the evacuees than the damage suffered by those children who had remained by their parents in Finland. In comparison to Finland's approximately 23,000 military casualties in the Winter War, the 66,000 in the Continuation war, and the total of 2,000 civilian casualties – and the roughly equally many seriously wounded – the war children were, of course, not physically injured, let alone killed. However, their number is of about the same size as that of the war invalids, and many of them feel their sufferings to be ignored.

After the war Finland experienced times of economic hardship, and also substantial insecurity with regard to the Soviet Union's plans for Finland, which resulted in the delay of the return of the children for several years. Ultimately about 20% of the war children stayed with their foster families after the war, who often adopted them, which spared them another traumatic separation. Many more returned to Sweden as adults, when the prolonged post-war hardship in Finland pushed large contingents of unemployed Finns to Sweden's booming economy in the 1950s–60s.

Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/142675707/War_Children.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142679076/War_Children.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142685835/War_Children.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142685915/War_Children.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142686971/War_Children.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142690972/War_Children.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142690981/War_Children.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142695680/War_Children.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142697571/War_Children.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142692097/War_Children.part10.rar

Rar Password: None

Jussi Awards
2004 Won Jussi Best Documentary Film (Paras dokumenttielokuva)Erja Dammert
Best Editing (Paras leikkaus)Jukka Nykänen

Pahat pojat (Bad Boys: A True Story) (2003) - Aleksi Mäkelä

Rating: 6.3/10 (1,410 votes)
Runtime: 120 min
Language: Finnish With Hardcoded English Sub
Country: Finland
Color: Color

IMDb Link:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323551/

Director: Aleksi Mäkelä
Cast:
Peter Franzén ... Otto Takkunen
Niko Saarela ... Matti Takkunen
Lauri Nurkse ... Ilkka Takkunen
Jasper Pääkkönen ... Eero Takkunen
Vesa-Matti Loiri ... Jouko Takkunen
Risto Tuorila ... Police Chief Ensio Suutari
Hannu-Pekka Björkman ... Muukkonen
Elsa Saisio ... Pirjo Suutari
Janna Herttuainen ... Leena
Eero Milonoff ... Aulis
Arttu Kapulainen ... Timo
Eeva Litmanen ... Tuulikki Suutari
Tiina Pirhonen ... Nurse Miettinen
Outi Mäenpää ... Mom
Santeri Nuutinen ... Takkunen's Son as Child

Description:
The story bases on four Finnish brothers, nicknamed 'the Eura Daltons' who received nation-wide notoriety for tearing gas pumps apart when they needed cash. The cast is an impressive one: the brothers are portrayed by Peter Franzen, Lauri Nurkse, Niko Saarela and Jasper Pääkkönen while their really evil father is played by Vesa-Matti Loiri, one of the grand old men of Finnish cinema.



Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/137832563/Bad.Boys_A.True.Story.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137833878/Bad.Boys_A.True.Story.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137843707/Bad.Boys_A.True.Story.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137843770/Bad.Boys_A.True.Story.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137843792/Bad.Boys_A.True.Story.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137844953/Bad.Boys_A.True.Story.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137919284/Bad.Boys_A.True.Story.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137919324/Bad.Boys_A.True.Story.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137919348/Bad.Boys_A.True.Story.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137926479/Bad.Boys_A.True.Story.part10.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137926500/Bad.Boys_A.True.Story.part11.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137924878/Bad.Boys_A.True.Story.part12.rar

Rar Password: None

Musta jää (Black Ice) (2007) - Petri Kotwica

Saara is a middle-aged doctor who one day finds out that his architect-husband Leo is having an affair with a younger woman, Tuuli. Instead of revealing her true identity, Saara pretends to be someone else end makes friends with Tuuli. At the same time she is planning the best way to revenge his husband and her lover.

5 wins & 5 nominations

Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/91439504/Musta.Jaa.2007.FNNSH.DVDRp.XvD-TXF.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91441246/Musta.Jaa.2007.FNNSH.DVDRp.XvD-TXF.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91441571/Musta.Jaa.2007.FNNSH.DVDRp.XvD-TXF.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91441455/Musta.Jaa.2007.FNNSH.DVDRp.XvD-TXF.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91443206/Musta.Jaa.2007.FNNSH.DVDRp.XvD-TXF.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91442675/Musta.Jaa.2007.FNNSH.DVDRp.XvD-TXF.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91442163/Musta.Jaa.2007.FNNSH.DVDRp.XvD-TXF.part7.rar

eng subs
http://rapidshare.com/files/133820080/txf-mustajaar.rar.html

Password: None

Juha (1999) - Aki Kaurismäki

Runtime: 78 min
Language: Finnish With Hardcoded English Sub
Country: Finland
Color: Black and White

Awards:

Amanda Awards, Norway
1999 Nominated Amanda Best Nordic Feature Film (Nordisk Amanda)Aki Kaurismäki

Berlin International Film Festival
1999 Won C.I.C.A.E. Award - Honorable Mention Forum of New Cinema Aki Kaurismäki

Camerimage
1999 Won Bronze Frog Timo Salminen
Nominated Golden Frog Timo Salminen

Jussi Awards
2000 Nominated Jussi Best Actress (Paras naispääosa)Kati Outinen
Best Cinematography (Paras kuvaus)Timo Salminen
Best Direction (Paras ohjaus)Aki Kaurismäki
Best Music (Paras musiikki)Anssi Tikanmäki

Valladolid International Film Festival
1999 Nominated Golden Spike Aki Kaurismäki


Description:
Aki Kaurismäki, the Finnish director behind Leningrad Cowboys Go America and last year's Drifting Clouds, has created a movie more ambitious than Eyes Wide Shut, more audacious than South Park... it is silent. I suppose this has been done a handful of times since the death of intertitles, most memorably Mel Brooks' Silent Movie, but Kaurismäki isn't going for laughs here. Juha and Marja are happy as puppies living in the country when the fast, dangerous Shemeikka comes roaring out of Helsinki offering Marja the chance to live the fast life. Naturally, she accepts Shemeikka's offer and Juha goes through a heavy bout of alcoholism (as is bound to happen to the hero of any given Kaurismäki film). At first I enjoyed the film's sentimentality for the times of silent movies, for the return to the roots of filmmaking: telling a story with moving images. But the film is littered with lots of intertitles to tell the story (to me, that's cheating) and only Kuosmanen as Juha truly expresses himself in the grand pantomime tradition. I can appreciate Kaurismäki's love for the silent medium, but I think it may truly be a lost art.

IMDb Link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0158692/



Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast:
Sakari Kuosmanen ... Juha
Kati Outinen ... Marja
André Wilms ... Shemeikka
Markku Peltola ... Driver
Elina Salo ... Shemeikka's Sister
Ona Kamu ... Shemeikka's Woman
Outi Mäenpää ... Shemeikka's Woman
Tuire Tuomisto ... Shemeikka's Woman
Tatiana Soloviova ... Dancer
Esko Nikkari ... Rural Police Chief
Jaakko Talaskivi ... Bodyguard
Safka Pekkonen ... Tango-orchestra Member
Sami Kuoppamäki ... Tango-orchestra Member
Juuso Norlund ... Tango-orchestra Member
Anssi Tikanmäki ... Tango-orchestra Member


Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/137121462/Juha.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137121634/Juha.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137121718/Juha.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137121763/Juha.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137140303/Juha.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137140405/Juha.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137140412/Juha.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/137129700/Juha.part8.rar

Rar Password: None

Rikos ja rangaistus (Crime and Punishment) (1983) - Aki Kaurismäki

Runtime: 93 min
Language: Finnish With Hardcoded English Sub
Country: Finland
Color: Color

Awards:

Jussi Awards
1984 Won Jussi Best Debut Film (Paras esikoiselokuva)Aki Kaurismäki
Best Script (Paras käsikirjoitus)Aki Kaurismäki,Pauli Pentti


Description:

An adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novel, updated to present-day Helsinki. Slaughterhouse worker Rahikainen murders a man, and is forced to live with the consequences of his actions... (...)

IMDb Link:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086199/



(...) It’s interesting that both Woody Allen and Aki Kaurismäki should be so drawn to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic novel Crime and Punishment. Both directors are clearly fascinated by the underlying absurdity of the novel’s view of the human condition and find the only means of expressing it is either through comedy or tragedy. While Allen has tried both approaches in his loose adaptations of Dostoevsky’s novel in Crimes and Misdemeanors and, less successfully, in Match Point, Kaurismäki – in his first feature film – already shows a propensity for a more direct approach, while at the same time managing to imprint an essential Finnish character on the work.

Kaurismäki’s directness in depicting the nature of his Raskolnikov, called here Rahikainen, extends to the workplace – a slaughterhouse where the man coldly strips dead carcasses and bisects a bug that has found his way onto his chopping block. With a similar lack of emotion and no apparent motive, Rahikainen (Markku Toikka) walks into the apartment of a rich businessman and shoots him dead. His crime is witnessed by a girl from a catering firm, Eeva (Aino Seppo), but when the police question Rahikainen about the murder, she doesn’t give him away. As the police try to find evidence that points to his involvement, Rahikainen plays a cat and mouse game with the inspector (Esko Nikkari), flirting with being caught, but at the same time not wanting to be held to account for an action he doesn’t believe was wrong.

The motivation may have changed in Kaurismäki’s version of Crime and Punishment, but the complexity of the psychology of the killer remains essentially the same, since the substance of the story is ironically not about the crime nor the punishment, but a consideration of the individual’s place in society and notions of guilt. When he fails to accept the morality, laws and rules that society demands he must adhere to - not so much through a sense of moral superiority as much as through a different conditioning influenced by his own life experiences and perhaps his working environment (the factors are innumerable and their impact unquantifiable, which is where the fascination of the story lies) – he thus finds himself in an intolerable and very lonely position.

The situation is mirrored and complicated to some extent with Eeva, who also behaves according to her own sense of duty. When combined, such forces can pose a serious threat to the foundations that society is built upon - “If people were sent to prison for their thoughts or words, your prisons would be full in no time”, Rahikainen tells the police inspector. That Kaurismäki manages to convey the full import of the story in relatively few words and with minimal expression is remarkable, but then that is not at all uncharacteristic for this director.

Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast:
Markku Toikka ... Antti Rahikainen
Aino Seppo ... Eeva Laakso
Esko Nikkari ... Inspector Pennanen
Olli Tuominen ... Detective Snellman
Hannu Lauri ... Department head Heinonen
Matti Pellonpää ... Nikander
Pentti Auer ... Kari Honkanen
Asmo Hurula ... Bartender
Tiina Pirhonen ... Maid
Kari Sorvali ... Sormunen
Risto Aaltonen ... Painter
Tarja Keinänen ... Mrs. Pennanen
Harri Marstio ... Singer


Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/135340972/Crime.and.Punishment.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135340995/Crime.and.Punishment.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135355165/Crime.and.Punishment.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135355203/Crime.and.Punishment.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135355226/Crime.and.Punishment.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135355231/Crime.and.Punishment.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135367573/Crime.and.Punishment.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135367643/Crime.and.Punishment.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135364411/Crime.and.Punishment.part09.rar

Rar Password: None

Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö (The Match Factory Girl)(1990) - Aki Kaurismäki

Runtime: 68 min
Language: Finnish With Hardcoded English Sub
Country: Finland | Sweden
Color: Color (Eastmancolor)

Awards
Berlin International Film Festival
1990 Won Interfilm Award Forum of New Cinema Aki Kaurismäki
OCIC Award - Honorable Mention Forum of New Cinema Aki Kaurismäki

European Film Awards
1990 Nominated European Film Award Best Film Aki Kaurismäki

Jussi Awards
1991 Won Jussi Best Actress (Paras naispääosa)Kati Outinen
Best Direction (Paras ohjaus)Aki Kaurismäki
Best Supporting Actor (Paras miessivuosa)Esko Nikkari
Best Supporting Actress (Paras naissivuosa)Elina Salo


Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast:
Kati Outinen ... Iiris
Elina Salo ... Mother
Esko Nikkari ... Stepfather
Vesa Vierikko ... Aarne
Reijo Taipale ... The singer
Silu Seppälä ... Iiris' brother
Outi Mäenpää ... Iiris' co-worker
Marja Packalén ... The doctor
Richard Reitinger ... Man in the bar
Helka Viljanen ... Office employee (as Helga Viljanen)
Kurt Siilas ... Policeman
Ismo Keinänen ... Policeman
Klaus Heydemann ... Worker

Description:
Amid the mechanical din of the automated assembly line is the quiet despair of a lost soul. Her name is Iris (Kati Outinen), a dour, impassive young woman who oversees the labeling of matchbox packages. She performs her task with silent, methodical precision: removing duplicates, moistening unaffixed labels, tamping down curled edges. Riding home on a public bus, her time is spent reading vacuous romance novels. Her home life provides little comfort to her overwhelming sense of loneliness - her mother (Elina Salo) and stepfather (Esko Nikkar) sit transfixed in front of the television until she calls them to dinner, where table conversation proves to be equally nonexistent. After finishing her chores, Iris changes into her best clothes and goes to the local dance hall. The perennial wallflower, she patiently sits as the ladies around her are asked to dance, while she attempts to occupy her time by sipping beverages and listening to sentimental love songs. And so the sad ritual of Iris' alienated life progresses until one day when she impulsively decides to spend her wages on a red dress. Punished by her parents for squandering the rent money, Iris is ordered to return the dress, but instead, goes to a nightclub where she catches the eye of a reticent man named Arne (Vesa Vierikko). But as the camera captures alternating glances of Arne's abstracted composure and Iris' enraptured euphoria, it is evident that their union is not the great, consuming love that she longs for. When Arne's repeated attempts at severing their relationship become too blatant to ignore, Iris' desperation takes hold.

Aki Kaurismäki creates a wickedly incisive and fascinating dark comedy in The Match Factory Girl. In characterizing the unremarkable protagonist, Iris, with an inexpressive, Bressonian demeanor, Kaurismäki reflects the sustained, dispassionate cynicism and alienation of contemporary society. Furthermore, the pervasive silence, emotional callousness, and physical isolation reflect the innate loneliness and dehumanization of the soul. Inevitably, unable to find connection in her cruel life, Iris lashes out at her oppressive environment with the same familiar detachment that has sustained her through disillusionment, abuse, humiliation, and heartbreak, and in the process, destroys all that is left of her dignity and humanity.

IMDb Link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098532/

Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/134515955/Match.Factory.Girl.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134515998/Match.Factory.Girl.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134516012/Match.Factory.Girl.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134516022/Match.Factory.Girl.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134533410/Match.Factory.Girl.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134533459/Match.Factory.Girl.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134529733/Match.Factory.Girl.part7.rar

Rar Password: None

Hamlet liikemaailmassa (Hamlet Goes Business) (1987) - Aki Kaurismäki

Runtime: 86 min
Language: Finnish With Hardcoded English Sub
Country: Finland
Color: Black and White

Awards
Jussi Awards
1988 Won Jussi Best Set Design (Paras lavastus)Pertti Hilkamo

Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast:
Pirkka-Pekka Petelius ... Hamlet
Esko Salminen ... Klaus
Kati Outinen ... Ofelia
Elina Salo ... Gertrud
Esko Nikkari ... Polonius
Kari Väänänen ... Lauri Polonius
Puntti Valtonen ... Simo (as Hannu Valtonen)
Mari Rantasila ... Helena
Turo Pajala ... Rosencranz
Aake Kalliala ... Gyldenstern
Pentti Auer ... Isä / Haamu
Matti Pellonpää ... Vartija
Vesa Mäkelä ... Lääkäri

Description:
In the highly competitive corporate environment of modern-day Denmark, Hamlet (Pirkka-Pekka Petelius) is the heir to his father's (Pentti Auer) majority stake in the family's diversified commercial enterprise. His father's business partner and senior board member, Klaus (Esko Salminen), is negotiating a delicate, multilayered transaction with rival companies to sell off less profitable ventures in exchange for cornering the market on a single, novelty product line: rubber ducks from Sweden. Having earlier caused the death of the elder Hamlet in order to gain the post of Chief Executive Officer and to marry his mistress, Hamlet's mother, Gertrude (Elina Salo), Klaus has now enlisted the aid of his chief lieutenant, Polonius (Esko Nikkari), to formulate a strategy in order to divest Hamlet of his shareholdings and realize his ambition of the rubber duck monopoly. To this end, Polonius has instructed his daughter, Hamlet's girlfriend, Ophelia (Kati Outinen), to drive Hamlet to the brink of passion, then rebuff him in an attempt to persuade the young heir into marrying her and thereby wrest control of his shares. Meanwhile, Hamlet's childhood friend, Lauri Polonius (Kari Väänänen), impulsively resigns from the company after a failed attempt to negotiate for new office (one that does not require entrance through the restroom) and to plead with him to stop his amorous pursuit of Ophelia. Severing ties with Hamlet, Lauri embarks on a trip to Sweden in order to resume his academic studies, making a final entreaty to Ophelia to resist Hamlet's indelicate advances. Abandoned by his friend, haunted by his father's restless spirit, and frustrated by his beloved Ophelia's constant rejection, Hamlet sinks into a state of confusion, melancholy, guilt, and despair.

A sardonic and irreverent contemporary adaptation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet Goes Business is an idiosyncratically whimsical, yet incisive satire on corporate greed, materialism, corruption, and vengeance. Shot in black and white and employing high contrast lighting, the film achieves an atmospheric noir that reflects Aki Kaurismäki's irrepressibly droll sense of humor and penchant for understated irony. Kaurismäki incorporates traditional, often manipulative and hackneyed stylistic devices of lush, overarching music, directed stage lighting, expressionistic gestures, skewed camera angles, and meticulously composed slow motion shots in order to playfully subvert dramatic convention: Lauri's angered departure from Hamlet's office; Hamlet's self-consciously tormented delivery of a poem to Ophelia; the overdramatic, but anticlimactic plot device of the Murder of Gonzago play-within-a-play episode to expose Klaus's treachery; the exquisite choreography of Ophelia's final moments of despair. By integrating muted emotion with exaggerated theatricality, Kaurismäki creates a delirious and incongruent fusion of highbrow art film and pop culture kitsch - a patently iconoclastic comedic tragedy on indecision, inertia, and alienation.

IMDb Link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093139/


Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/134406723/Hamlet.Goes.Busines.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134397885/Hamlet.Goes.Busines.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134397918/Hamlet.Goes.Busines.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134411786/Hamlet.Goes.Busines.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134411801/Hamlet.Goes.Busines.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134411833/Hamlet.Goes.Busines.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134469940/Hamlet.Goes.Busines.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134469972/Hamlet.Goes.Busines.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134468088/Hamlet.Goes.Busines.part09.rar

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Varjoja paratiisissa (Shadows in Paradise)(1986) - Aki Kaurismäki

Runtime: 76 min
Language: Finnish With Hardcoded English Sub
Country: Finland
Color: Colour (Eastmancolor)

Awards
Jussi Awards
1987 Won Jussi Best Film (Vuoden elokuva)

Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast:
Matti Pellonpää ... Nikander
Kati Outinen ... Ilona Rajamäki
Sakari Kuosmanen ... Melartin
Esko Nikkari ... Co-worker (työkaveri)
Kylli Köngäs ... Ilona's Girlfriend (ystävätär)
Pekka Laiho ... Shop Steward (myymälänhoitaja)
Jukka-Pekka Palo ... Third Man (kolmasmies)
Svante Korkiakoski ... Police (poliisi)
Mari Rantasila ... Nikander's Sister (Nikanderin sisar)
Safka Pekkonen ... Pianist (pianisti) (as Safka)
Antti Ortamo ... 2nd pianist (pianisti II)
Mato Valtonen ... Pelle (as Markku Valtonen)
Sakke Järvenpää ... Staffan (as Sakari Järvenpää)
Ulla Kuosmanen ... Melartin's wife (Melartinin vaimo)
Neka Haapanen ... Cook (kokki)

Description:
Every morning at the break of dawn, Nikander (Matti Pellonpää) and his co-worker (Esko Nikkari) conduct their silent ritual by making their way through a maze of trucks parked in the depot of a waste management company, picking up their daily itinerary, settling into their assigned vehicle, driving to their designated industrial areas to collect the accumulated trash from the cumbersome dumpsters, and taking an occasional break from work by stopping at a convenient diner before resuming their collection route. Eager to celebrate the end of the work week with a bottle of liquor smuggled into the locker room, Nikander's colleague attempts to entice him with a business proposition that he has been planning for years: to launch a start-up garbage disposal service with Nikander serving as his foreman. It is an attractive offer that seems well suited to Nikander's own curious efforts at self-enrichment as he alternately spends his evenings studying English language comprehension through pre-recorded instructional lessons and playing bingo at a local gaming parlor. Preying on Nikander's conscience with a sobering reflection on his increasingly failing health as well as his unfulfilled promises to his devoted wife for an exotic vacation and a life of luxury - along with a humble (and humorous) wish to die behind a desk instead of behind the wheel of a garbage truck - his colleague convinces him to accept the proposal, and conveys his consent by indicating that he should take a course in order to help him prepare for his new professional role. However, tragedy strikes before his colleague's plans can be set to motion, and Nikander soon finds himself seemingly trapped in the same rut of his dead-end job until he again meets a genial and attentive cashier named Ilona (Kati Outinen) taking a smoking break - a supermarket samaritan who had once dressed his wounded arm after a car repair injury - and immediately falls for her.

The first film in what would evolve into the Proletariat Trilogy (along with Ariel and The Match Factory Girl), Shadows in Paradise is a muted, understatedly atmospheric, sublimely realized, and darkly comic romantic fable. Using alternating daytime and nighttime shots of exterior spaces and dimly lit interiors that obscure temporal reference, Aki Kaurismäki captures the inherent monotony - and often unproductive - perpetual routines that symptomatically define the dead-end, inescapable plight and marginalization of the working class: impersonal public spaces (night class study rooms, bars, restaurants, hotels, and bingo halls) that serve as an extension to the characters' alienated existence; recurring episodes of unrealized and aborted plans (the colleague's business proposal, Ilona's impulsive act of revenge, Nikander's truncated courtship) that illustrate a pattern of disappointment and failed attempts at a better life; Ilona's history of job insecurity that mirrors the instability of her relationship with Nikander. Kaurismäki further implements visual incongruity through idiosyncratic, but subtly effective (and thematically contradictory) camerawork in order to reflect the untenability of personal fulfillment: initially, in the unexpectedly rapid zoom-out, long shot of Nikander and Ilona's kiss, then subsequently in Nikander's extreme close-up after Ilona leaves the apartment. It is this underlying elusiveness of happiness that wryly punctuates the seemingly idyllic parting image of the film: a glimpse of reconciliation and a new beginning amid the obscuring sight of a fog-laden horizon under ominously dark clouds, drifting sluggishly, but inalterably into the strangely familiar unknown.

IMDb Link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092149/



Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/134533474/Shadows.in.Paradise.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134545267/Shadows.in.Paradise.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134545347/Shadows.in.Paradise.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134545409/Shadows.in.Paradise.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134545387/Shadows.in.Paradise.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134555222/Shadows.in.Paradise.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134555272/Shadows.in.Paradise.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134546469/Shadows.in.Paradise.part8.rar

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Calamari Union (1985) - Aki Kaurismäki

Runtime: 84 min
Language: English | Finnish With Hardcoded English Sub
Country: Finland
Color: Black and White

Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast:
Timo Eränkö ... Frank
Kari Heiskanen ... Frank
Asmo Hurula ... Frank
Sakke Järvenpää ... Frank
Sakari Kuosmanen ... Frank Armoton (as Saku Kuosmanen)
Dave Lindholm ... Homeless man
Mikko Mattila ... Frank
Pate Mustajärvi ... Frank
Tuomari Nurmio ... Taxi driver / bum (as Hannu Nurmio)
Pirkka-Pekka Petelius ... Frank
Matti Pellonpää ... Frank
Martti Syrjä ... Frank
Pantse Syrjä ... Frank (as Mikko Syrjä)
Pertti Sveholm ... Frank
Markku Toikka ... Pekka

Description:
In which a loose 'gang' comprising 18 (or so) men, all (bar one) named Frank, all (bar one or two) permanently wearing sunglasses (day and night, indoor/outdoor), attempt to leave behind their unsatisfactory environment ("crowded homes, ignorance and hunger, not to mention stuffy buses with irregular timetables"), and, motivated by the hope that the grass is greener elsewhere ("The branch of a rotten tree must seek a healthier trunk,") make their way across a large city (Helsinki?) towards the maybe-mythical zone known as Eira, where "the streets are wide and the air is smooth and fresh."

Arriving in the "extreme centre of the city," the permanently chain-smoking eighteen quickly splits up into smaller groupings of ones, twos and three - and then their adventures begin, most of them ending in death. But in the mildly stylised, monochrome world of Calamari Union (a title which, predictably in such a too-cool-for-school venture, is never explained or even once mentioned), death need not necessarily be the end...

This is very early Kaurismaki: only his second solo-directed feature (after 1983's Dostoyevsky adaptation Crime and Punishment), and his first based on his own original story. As indicated by the name of Kaurismaki's production company (Villealfa), the chief influence would appear to be Godard's Alphaville: nothing remotely resembling special effects are deployed, and only actual downtown environments are used; Kaurismaki treats Helsinki more as a geographical idea than as an actual quotidian city, a starting-point for a quasi-imaginary journey into a shadowy limbo formed and informed by B-movies and rock music.

Plot is incidental; attitude is all: deadpan, detached, world-weary, unsmiling, 'beat.' Kaurismaki's script is a collection of nifty episodes operating on their own internal, solipsistic logic, full of repeated images, lines and tropes. It's more impressive than involving, easier to admire than to enjoy (though at times the picture is laugh-out-loud funny), an archly jokey concept stretched out to something approaching feature length. By no means essential Kaurismaki, then, but an intrigue glimpse of a distinctive talent in precocious, quirky embryo.

IMDb Link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087020/



Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/134343089/Calamari.Union.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134343189/Calamari.Union.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134343214/Calamari.Union.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134343248/Calamari.Union.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134352712/Calamari.Union.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134352771/Calamari.Union.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134352759/Calamari.Union.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134349061/Calamari.Union.part08.rar

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Brasileirinho - Grandes Encontros do Choro (The Sound of Rio: Brasileirinho) (2005) - Mika Kaurismäki

Runtime: 90 min
Language: Portuguese With Hardcoded English Sub
Country: Brazil | Finland | Switzerland
Color: Color

Awards:
Jussi Awards
2007 Nominated Jussi Best Documentary (Paras dokumenttielokuva)Mika Kaurismäki

Description:
A companion piece to Finnish helmer Mika Kaurismaki's 2002 "The Sound of Brazil," which explored music's centrality in helmer's adoptive country, his latest docu "Brasileirinho," offers a more focused but less complex tribute to "choro," an older style of playing that forms the foundation of all Brazilian composition, including samba and bossa nova. Featuring copious footage of top-level artists performing with bravura intensity, interspersed with sketchy history lessons and interviews, "Brasileirinho" reps toe-tapping, hip-swaying stuff for world-music fans. However, lack of narrative drive or standout characters will prevent pic from finding theatrical gigs like other recent music docus. (...)

IMDb Link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0456321/


(...) Set mostly in and around Rio de Janeiro where choro was born (whereas "Sound" went all over the map), "Brasileirinho" simply introduces major choro players on the scene in their natural environment, some of their students at a "choro school," and watches them get on with it. Footage of a formal concert in Niteroi shot with several digital cameras is intercut into the more conventionally docu-style main body of the movie.

Occasionally, pic takes a break for voiceover explanations of choro's origins against rostrum shots of old photos, explaining how it was forged in the 19th century from a collision between European waltzes and polkas, African rhythms, and the "melancholy" sound of indigenous South American tribes. Nearest equivalent in North American terms would be ragtime or the blues. Choro fell out of fashion in the 70s and 80s, only to experience a recent revival at hands of star players who grooved to its unique interplay of rigid structure and improvisation, and the ease with which it lends itself to spontaneous jam sessions.

Keeping himself off camera this time after appearing as guide and narrator in "The Sound of Brazil," Kaurismaki directs here with self-effacing simplicity. But as the subjects here hardly speak of their own lives and tend to talk in impersonal generalizations, pic will have minimal appeal to auds only vaguely interested in Brazilian music.

Digital lensing by Jacques Cheuiche, Kaurismaki's lenser for nearly all his Brazilian projects, is exquisitely sharp and richly colored. Use of a crane during some of the perfs allows the camera to swoop in time to the music, at one point moving in one shot from a street scene outside a window up to the roof of club. Sound by Uwe Dresch, recorded on 24-track rigs, is as crisp as melba toast.

Director: Mika Kaurismäki
Cast:
Teresa Cristina ... Herself
Paulinho da Viola ... Himself
Thalma de Freitas ... Narrator
Ademilde Fonseca ... Herself (as Admilde Fonseca)
Zezé Gonzaga ... Herself
Guinga ... Himself
Paulo Moura ... Himself
Luciano Rabelo ... Himself
Elza Soares ... Herself
Marcos Suzano ... Himself
Trio Madeira Brasil ... Themselves
Yamandu ... Himself

Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/133940935/The.Sound.of.Rio.Brasileirinho.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/133940989/The.Sound.of.Rio.Brasileirinho.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/133941014/The.Sound.of.Rio.Brasileirinho.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/133941019/The.Sound.of.Rio.Brasileirinho.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134017150/The.Sound.of.Rio.Brasileirinho.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134017219/The.Sound.of.Rio.Brasileirinho.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134017245/The.Sound.of.Rio.Brasileirinho.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134017252/The.Sound.of.Rio.Brasileirinho.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/134014259/The.Sound.of.Rio.Brasileirinho.part09.rar

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