Born
4 April 1957 (68)
Place of Birth
Orimattila, Finland
Also known as
Aki Olavi Kaurismäki
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 M...
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.
Fallen Leaves
2023
Cinéma Laika
2023
The Dinosaur
2021
Aki and Peter
2018
Plankton Salesmen
2017
The Other Side of Hope
2017
Peter von Bagh
2016
Valokeilassa Atte Blom
2015
Temples of Dreams
2015
Dirty Hands
2015
Il était une fois... Le Havre
2014
Bluesia Pieksämäen asemalla
2013
Historic Centre
2012
Tavern Man
2012
A Special Day
2012
Le Havre
2011
Bohemian Eyes
2011
Critic
2008
To Each His Own Cinema
2007
The Foundry
2007
Lights in the Dusk
2006
Aaltra
2004
Visions of Europe
2004
Bico
2004
Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet
2002
Dogs Have No Hell
2002
🎬 Director
The Man Without a Past
2002
Aki Kaurismäki
2001
Juha
1999
Drifting Clouds
1996
I Am Curious, Film
1995
Iron Horsemen
1995
Total Balalaika Show
1994
Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses
1994
Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana
1994
Talking with Ozu
1993
La Vie de Bohème
1992
Where Is Musette?
1992
Jonathan Ross Presents for One Week Only: Aki Kaurismäki
1991
I Hired a Contract Killer
1990