Directed and written by the enigmatic Aki Kaurismäki, Lights in the Dusk is a masterpiece of visual beauty and dark humour.

Made by critically acclaimed Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki, Lights in the Dusk is a masterpiece of visual beauty and dark humour.

Aki Kaurismäki

Born in 1957, Aki Kaurismäki has won critical acclaim internationally. In 2002, his film The Man Without a Past won the Grand Prix at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in and it was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category. 

In 2006, Lights In the Dusk was chosen to be Finland's nominee for the Oscar for best Foreign Film.

Kaurismäki  is also famous for his political positions. In 2003, he refused to go to the New York Film Festival, to protest against the fact that Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami had been refused entry onto US soil  because of his nationality. He also expressed several times his views against G.W. Bush.

Lights in the Dusk

Lights in the Dusk tells the story of Kaustinen, a security man who dreams of a better life. The only person who ever pays attention to him is the woman who sells sausages at the bottom of his block in Helsinki. However, his life changes when he meets a woman who is maybe too beautiful for him...

The Reviews...

BBC Review

4 stars out of 5

"The sumptuous palette and the closed but beautifully composed frames evoke a strange nostalgia: part Edward Hopper, part 1970s furniture catalogue. Along with [main character] Kostinen's noirish suits, rock and roll hairstyle and misplaced code of honour, it helps create the sense of a man completely out of time and place, a loser, lost, but never knowing it."

Full review

Los Angeles Times

"The distance Kaurismäki creates belies his deeply humanistic streak. He engages characters in the direst of situations not to see them suffer but to search for hope. Is there a place for the Koistinen's of the world? Indeed. All the lonely people, where do they all belong?"

Full review