Aki Kaurismäki

Aki Olavi Kaurismäki Finnish ˈɑki ˈkɑurismæki born 4 April 1957 Orimattila is a Finnish film director screenwriter producer editor and actor He is best known for the awardwinning 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 Finlands bestknown film director His is an older brother to Mika Kaurismäki After graduating in media studies from the University of Tampere Kaurismäki worked as a bricklayer postman and dishwasher long before pursuing his interest in cinema first as a critic and later as a screenwriter director He started his career as a coscreenwriter and actor in films made by his older brother Mika Kaurismäki He played the main role in Mikas 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 Dostoyevskys novel set in modern Helsinki He gained worldwide attention with Leningrad Cowboys Go America 1989 Kaurismäkis film Ariel 1988 was entered into the 16th Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Prix FIPRESCI Kaurismäkis 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 Kaurismäkis next film Lights in the Dusk was also chosen to be Finlands nominee for best foreignlanguage film but Kaurismäki again boycotted the awards and refused the nomination as a protest against US President George W Bushs 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 Kaurismäkis 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 as a director although the retirement was shortlived as he began filming another film Fallen Leaves in 2022 which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023