Aki Kaurismäki

Instruktør, Forfatter, Producer, Filmklipper, Skuespiller, Komponist

4. april 1957 (69 år)
Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (Finnish: [ˈɑki ˈkɑu̯rismæki]; born April 4,1957; Orimattila) is a Finnish film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and actor. He is best known for the award-winning Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002), Le Havre (2011), The Other Side of Hope (2017) and Fallen Leaves (2023), as well as for the mockumentary Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). He is described as Finland's best-known film director. He is the younger brother of director and screenwriter Mika Kaurismäki.

After graduating in media studies from the University of Tampere, Kaurismäki worked as a bricklayer, postman, and dish-washer, long before pursuing his interest in cinema, first as a critic, and later as a screenwriter & director. He started his career as a co-screenwriter and actor in films made by his older brother, Mika Kaurismäki. He played the main role in Mika's film The Liar (1981). Together they founded the production company Villealfa Filmproductions and later the Midnight Sun Film Festival. His debut as an independent director was Crime and Punishment (1983), an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novel set in modern Helsinki. He gained worldwide attention with Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989).

Kaurismäki's film Ariel (1988) was entered into the 16th Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Prix FIPRESCI. Kaurismäki's most acclaimed film has been The Man Without a Past, which won the Grand Prix and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category in 2003. However, Kaurismäki refused to attend the Oscar ceremony, asserting that he did not feel like partying in a country that was in a state of war. Kaurismäki's next film, Lights in the Dusk, was also chosen to be Finland's nominee for best foreign-language film, but Kaurismäki again boycotted the awards and refused the nomination, as a protest against U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy. In 2002 Kaurismäki also boycotted the 40th New York Film Festival in a show of solidarity with the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who was not given a US visa in time for the festival. Kaurismäki's 2017 film The Other Side of Hope won the Silver Bear for Best Director award at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. At the same festival he also announced that it would be his last film, although the retirement was short-lived as he began filming Fallen Leaves in 2022, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023.

Kendt for

  • Faldne blade
    Faldne blade2023
  • Manden uden fortid
    Manden uden fortid2002
  • Miraklet I Le Havre
    Miraklet I Le Havre2011
  • Pigen fra tændstikfabrikken
    Pigen fra tændstikfabrikken1990
  • Lys I Mørket
    Lys I Mørket2017
  • Drifting Clouds
    Drifting Clouds1996
  • I Hired a Contract Killer
    I Hired a Contract Killer1990
  • Lys i tusmørket
    Lys i tusmørket2006
  • Bohemeliv
    Bohemeliv1992
  • Ariel
    Ariel1988
  • Leningrad Cowboys Go America
    Leningrad Cowboys Go America1989
  • Skygger i paradis
    Skygger i paradis1986
  • Juha
    Juha1999
  • Pas på dit tørklæde, Tatjana
    Pas på dit tørklæde, Tatjana1994
  • Calamari Union
    Calamari Union1985
  • Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet
    Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet2002
  • Hamlet Goes Business
    Hamlet Goes Business1987
  • Leningrad Cowboys møder Moses
    Leningrad Cowboys møder Moses1994
  • Forbrydelse og straf
    Forbrydelse og straf1983
  • Rocky VI
    Rocky VI1986

Filmografi

2004
Aaltra · as Aaltra's Boss
1997
1994
Iron Horsemen · as Cadillac Man
1994
Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses · as Factory Worker Imitating Chaplin (uncredited)
1992
Shit Happens · as Estonian
1990
I Hired a Contract Killer · as Sunglasses Seller (uncredited)
1986
Shadows in Paradise · as Hotel Receptionist (uncredited)
1986
Rocky VI · as Magazine Photographer
1985
Ylösnousemus · as Taksikuski
1985
Calamari Union · as Hearse Driver (uncredited)
1985
1983
In the Year of the Ape · as Charlotte Corday
1983
1982
The Worthless · as Ville Alfa
1982
1981
The Liar · as Ville Alfa

1985
Calamari Union · as Composer

2024
2023
Cinéma Laika · as Self
2021
2021
The Dinosaur · as Self
2015
2015
2013
2012
2011
Bohemian Eyes · as Self
2010
2008
Crítico · as Self
2004
2004
2004
Sininen laulu · as Self
2003
A Film & Its Era · as Self
1995
1995
1991
1990
1989
1982
Cinéma cinémas · as Self (segment 'bonnaffé Autoportrait')
1981
The Saimaa Gesture · as Self - Interviewer (uncredited)
1971
A-studio · as Self - Elokuvaohjaaja

1994
Iron Horsemen · as Assistant Director
1994
1986
Morena · as Production Sound Mixer
1985
Rosso · as Dialogue
1984
The Clan - Tale of the Frogs · as Assistant Director
1982
The Worthless · as Production Design
1982
The Worthless · as Assistant Director
1982
The Worthless · as Dialogue
1982
Jackpot 2 · as Production Design
1982
Jackpot 2 · as Costume Design
1982
Jackpot 2 · as Assistant Director
1982
Jackpot 2 · as Smoke Artist