Woodcutter Pepe lives a happy, quiet life in a snow-covered Finnish village. He puts on a brave, if weather-beaten face after a chain of tragic events happen to him and continues to cling to hope even after losing his job due to the logging industry becoming more mechanised. Pepe crams his body, that is running on pure perseverance, into a bright red ski suit – luck has never been complicated, even if there’s no rhyme or reason for anything that happens.

You could describe Finnish director Mikko Myllylahti’s film, which screened in competition at Cannes Critics’ Week, as a dark social comedy written by philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and inspired by Fargo (1996). Pepe, played by actor Jarkko Lahti (who starred in The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki, 2016), is perhaps one of the most optimistic heroes in European cinema. The witty, light-hearted cinematography has absorbed many Finnish film tropes: strange, silent people in snow drifts, an ironic soundtrack, ice fishing, meaningful phrases uttered with a blank stare and, most importantly, death by axe.