Nox

Finnish backwoods noir featuring seriously determined men driving nondescript cars, busy with stuff that could be brutal, because things could go out of hand. Lots of rain. A melancholically modernist pastiche of genre tropes, full of casual humour, laconic wit and cheerful irony.

The true pride of Finnish cinema are its outlaws and mavericks, a loose band of moving image artists whose aesthetics are totally at odds with the nation’s official film culture. The internationally – so far – most widely recognised of these is Matti Harju whose modernist melancholia of slinging genre tropes with a wry frown always leaves viewers dazzled – for something like his films you’ve never seen.

Nox sports the airs of a backwoods noir, with seriously determined men being busy with stuff – the kind of stuff men do after they have driven their nondescript cars to places where then things happen. This stuff could be brutal, because things could go out of hand, pronto. For which someone always has to pay, sure. Don’t expect any heist or bloodshed, though, and forget as well the initial buddy movie intimations, for Nox is all about attitude: the expectations evoked by certain images and gestures, which Harju fulfils in just a casually flippant, jocular yet deeply felt fashion. A truly cool movie!

– Olaf Möller

Trailer