lights in the dusk (w&d kaurismäki)

The film opens with a group of Russians discussing Russian literature, naming Gorky, Pushkin and Tolstoy. This sets up the most Dosteyevskian of the director’s films. The narrative follows the grim fate of Koistinen, a night watchman who is targeted by a femme fatale in a honey trap, setting him up as the fall guy when the people she works for steal jewels from the site he is supposed to be guarding. Things keep going from bad to worse for Koistinen. He encounters fate’s barbs with a stoicism that seems almost perverse. The Helsinki which Kaurismäki shows is one that has become ‘modernised’. Neon and new builds dominate. But the space for human kindness has shrunk. Whilst retaining Kaurismäki’s deadpan humour, this film feels closer to his nordic neighbour Bergman in tone and mournfulness.