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The man who didn't want to know too much
Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without A Past is hilarious, heartfelt
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Arthur J Pais
You would expect someone who has lost his memory to desperately try to find out about his identity. But M, who has lost his memory as a result of a brutal beating at a Helsinki park by a group of thugs, hardly makes an effort to claim his past.
Instead, M, who finds himself among the marginalised people of the Finnish city, goes around creating a new life for himself, making new friends and fighting the bureaucracy as he tries to find means to restart his life.
Writer and director Aki Kaurismaki has fashioned an often hilarious and always heartfelt film: The Man Without A Past. On the surface, it is a film about enigmatic, amnaesic stranger in the big city. But it is also a scathing attack on the bureaucracy.
More important, it is an ode to the true nature of compassion and friendship.
Many critics have called Kaurismaki the poet laureate of the working class. This is yet another tribute by the filmmaker, whose films include Drifting Clouds and Juha, celebrating the tenacity and resourcefulness of the working class. He does so without resorting to didacticism and without ever losing his humorous touch.
The Finish film, which won the top prize at the recent Cannes Film Festival, was seen as a major triumph at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) as well as the New York Film Festival (NYFF).
It will be shown for the second time at NYFF, Thursday, in New York. Soon, Sony Pictures Classics will have it in art movie houses across America. It is expected to be one of the major contenders for the Oscars in the foreign film category.
The movie received additional publicity when Kaurismaki, irked by the American refusal to give a speedy visa to fellow filmmaker from Abbas Kiarostami from Iran, declined to come to America to attend the NYFF and meet reporters.
Kiarostami's Ten was one of the highlights of NYFF and his absence was sorely felt.
At Toronto, the film was shown in the Masters section along with a dozen films, including The Man Without A Past.
Even without the controversy, the Finnish movie would have drawn enough attention to it. For it is one of the few award-winning films from such festivals as Cannes that are also enjoyable and within the reach of any moviegoer who admires a well told tale about humanity.
Kaurismaki never offers anything abstract or esoteric. He even lets us ksnow towards the end of the film about the real identity of his protagonist. But in making him return to his new home, he is forced to think about the real meaning of identity and home.
The film is filled with superlative performances not only by Markku Peltola as the man who loses his memory but also by the ever luminous Kati Outinen, who plays a Salvation Army worker and is drawn to him. There are many colourful characters in the film portrayed by artistess we might never have seen before.
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