In Helsinki today, workers quietly go about their daily routine, quench their thirst with a stiff drink, listen to the radio, barely talk, and sing karaoke. In even greater silence, they all hope to be loved. Ansa loses her job at the grocery store, while Holapa is fired from his construction job. They are strangers, but will soon fall in love. A melancholy tale of two lonely people meeting, a destiny fated to be interrupted by a lost phone number, unbelievable coincidence, and due to reasons known only to fate itself, who goes by the name of Aki Kaurismäki.

Kaurismäki is on top form, and makes us long for a simpler and kinder world. The director himself would not mind having his Cannes Jury Prize-winning film compared to the best film never made by Charlie Chaplin. He even named the film’s protagonist, a faithful dog, after the comedy classic. The Finnish absurdist’s latest work has three dimensions: one of them is inhabited by the characters of Jarmusch, Bresson etc., the other by the existentialism that Kaurismäki has cultivated, Finnish cinema veterans, and the third by the visage of today’s reality. In the end, the viewer will feel sad and happy, slightly intoxicated by the music of bars with sticky floors and Finnish tango, and will also feel their own broken heart, which the main couple will help to heal.

This film is screened as part of a cooperation with Bear, Lion & Palm.