Search: Directed by Aki Kaurismäki

Grim realism and heady romanticism meet in a surreal borderland where deadpan reigns.

A compelling blend of gritty realism and escapist fantasy.

An amuse-bouche of a film, Aki Kaurismäki’s latest comedy romance may leave you wanting more but it’s also a fully rounded, good looking experience packed with all the flavours we’ve come to expect from the master of deadpan down the years.

Director Aki Kaurismäki's latest is a humanist hug of a fable, which concludes that while big miracles may happen, it's the everyday 'miracles' people create for one another that really count.

Though each filmmaker provides typical servings of his own respective style in responding to the brief at hand, this portmanteau piece is predictably uneven.

Though most of the story is unrelentingly grim, it's always watchable, absorbing despite its depressing atmosphere.

Kaurismaki's crazy vision is so original that he is forgiven everything - except boredom.

Kaurismäki regular Outinen proves herself the divine muse of minimalism, conveying more emotion with her stony facial expressions than a whole marquee's worth of shrill starlets could manage.

The director has a flare for encapsulating a world of emotion in a single moment.

Comedy rarely comes so bleak, and depression is rarely so funny.