A film about the psychology of unemployment. Husband and wife Lauri and Ilona both lose their jobs in quick succession. Ilona, who worked as maître d’hotel, is sacked when the restaurant changes hands. Lauri, tram-driver, is one of the unfortunate ones chosen by fate when the tram company is drastically reorganised. They swallow their pride and shut out their bitterness to submit themselves to the humiliation of job hunting and money worries.Kaurismäki’s characters seem to be in a stable state of misery – at the best. Yet the director wanted to cheer up his unemployed fellow countrymen and -women with his film: when Ilona thinks of starting a restaurant of her own, it looks as if it’s going to be a success by the end of the film. Aki Kaurismäki: ‘When I started writing the script for this film, I placed Frank Capra’s emotional rescue story It’s a Wonderful Life in one extreme corner, De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves in the other, and Finnish reality in between’. The colours – wine red, blue-grey and grey-green – in this carefully composed film emphasise the void in the world, but also the inner strength and mutual love of the protagonists. The film is dedicated to Matti Pellonpää, Kaurismäki’s mustachioed alter ego and best friend, who died two weeks before shooting was to start.
