Aki Kaurismäki

Regie, Autor, Produzent, Schnitt, Darsteller, Komponist

4. April 1957 (69 Jahre)
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.

Bekannt aus

  • Fallende Blätter
    Fallende Blätter2023
  • Der Mann ohne Vergangenheit
    Der Mann ohne Vergangenheit2002
  • Le Havre
    Le Havre2011
  • Das Mädchen aus der Streichholzfabrik
    Das Mädchen aus der Streichholzfabrik1990
  • Die andere Seite der Hoffnung
    Die andere Seite der Hoffnung2017
  • Wolken ziehen vorüber
    Wolken ziehen vorüber1996
  • Vertrag mit meinem Killer
    Vertrag mit meinem Killer1990
  • Lichter der Vorstadt
    Lichter der Vorstadt2006
  • Das Leben der Bohème
    Das Leben der Bohème1992
  • Ariel - Abgebrannt in Helsinki
    Ariel - Abgebrannt in Helsinki1988
  • Leningrad Cowboys Go America
    Leningrad Cowboys Go America1989
  • Schatten im Paradies
    Schatten im Paradies1986
  • Juha
    Juha1999
  • Tatjana
    Tatjana1994
  • Calamari Union
    Calamari Union1985
  • Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet
    Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet2002
  • Hamlet macht Geschäfte
    Hamlet macht Geschäfte1987
  • Die Leningrad Cowboys treffen Moses
    Die Leningrad Cowboys treffen Moses1994
  • Jedem sein Kino
    Jedem sein Kino2007
  • Schuld und Sühne
    Schuld und Sühne1983

Filmografie