A long short film of the fate of incurable liar Ville Alfa, memorably played by Mika's brother Aki.

The film is loaded with a variety of references to literature and cinema and was the beginning of a new era in Finnish film making - the era of Kaurismäki brothers.

Falling somewhere between Billy Liar and A Bout de Souffle, Kaurismaki’s The Liar is a portrait of a young man with a sociopathic penchant for bullshit.

Starring the directors brother, Aki, we watch as the titular Liar wanders around Helsinki, bumping into old friends and acquaintances and trying to bum cash off them and revealing intimate glimpses of a life gone wrong. At times, the style almost parodies the French new wave with its shaky camera and seemingly inconsequential chit-chat, but beneath the facade is a touching story of a young drifter on the edge of society.

The Liar won the 1981 Risto Jarva Award at the Tampere International Short Film Festival, and is certainly one of Kaurismaki’s most accessible movies.