Shadows in Paradise

Director: Aki Kaurismaki

1984 / 74min / DCP

The first film of Kaurismäki’s “Proletariat Trilogy” has Matti Pellonpää as a garbage collector whose dreams of entrepreneurial salvation are dashed by the death of his business associate, though he discovers a new hope while searching for work when he meets supermarket cashier Kati Outinen, a key Kaurismäki collaborator. Beginning as an austere romantic comedy with all the frippery removed, the film’s raucous rockabilly backbeat provides a hopped-up counterpoint to a trudging, human-scale story of everyday people trying to get beyond just getting by, and in doing so attaining a measure of heroism.

Screening material courtesy of the Suomen Elokuvasäätiö/The Finnish Film Foundation