The Man Without A Past, or ‘Mies vailla menneisyytt” in Finnish, is Aki Kaurism’ki’s latest.

Marrku Peltola is ‘M’. A guy who has just arrived in Helsinki, when he gets beaten up really bad. His head injuries caused him to develop Amnesia. Unable to remember anything from his former life, he starts again on the outskirts of the City.

Kaurismaki has been into trilogies long before it became fashionable. So I’ll not accuse him of ‘Bandwagon Behaviour’. TMWAP is the second film in his ‘Finland Trilogy’, Drifting Clouds (1996) being the first. The first two films of the trilogy focus on the unemployed, the homeless and … surprise … surprise … ‘Finland!’.

Well, in the beginning the main character M. certainly is homeless, in a lot of ways. But he gradually makes new friends and begins to build a life again. This process is layed-out beautifully. To me it’s one of the nicest things about the movie. The biggest plus definately is the typical Kaurism’ki ambience. Which is a melancholic, slightly absurdistic, dark kind of humor. Although I would have liked some more of it in this film. M’s sentiments and romance, yes there’s a little romance in this one, seems more importand to Kaurism’ki and draw attention away from the fun stuff. I.m.o. it makes the film slower an less exciting than it could’ve been. Although it does make the story more consistent, more leading.

I’ve seen too few Kaurism’ki films to compare TMWAP with his other films. But I already know that the ‘funnier’-films appeal to me more than the subtle ones. The best one I’ve seen so far is ‘Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (1994)’, which has the advantage of having the Leningrad Cowboys in it, but not being a ‘Cowboys Vehicle’, like ‘The Leningrad Cowboys Go America’ was. The contrast between the cowboy and the more ‘normal’ guy (actually also a LC, I think) is hilarious.

All Kaurism’ki films I’ve seen so far have a thing with music, especially Rock and Roll music. It’s so explicit. Music doesn’t only appear as the soundtrack, but you get performances in certain scenes. Someone turns-on a radio, or jukebox in other scenes. Like intermezzo’s. The music seems out-of-place in the often gloomy situations. These scenes are great fun. Great tunes!

I don’t know what to think about the acting performances. It seems like a kind of theatrical trick, a method. The simplistic communication can be captivating and annoying at the same time. Anyway, the characters are interesting enough. I won’t go into the story, as it will spoil the fun if you plan to go see it. Don’t see the trailer, it isn’t any good and it already tells the whole story. The website does too. But it’s a nice site.

If you don’t like slow movies, stay away from this one. If not, sit back and enjoy the ride. Finally I’m very interested what Finnish people think of this film. I’ve never been to Finland. But if it’s anything like Sweden or Norway, TMWAP is an interesting view on Finnish culture these days. It was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. So, although it didn’t win the award, at least it got enough attention outside Finland to get nominated. ‘The Man Without A Past’, now showing in dutch theatres.

Rated: *** (out of 5), for the Salvation Army .

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