LIGHTS IN THE DUSK
aka LAITAKAUPUNGIN VALOT
Year: 2006
USA: Strand Releasing
UK: Artificial Eye
Cast: Janne Hyytiäinen, Maria Järvenhelmi, Maria Heiskanen, Ilkka Koivula, Sergei Doudko, Andrei Gennadiev, Arturas Pozdniakovas, Matti Onnismaa, Sulevi Peltola, Antti Reini, Neka Haapanen, Santtu Karvonen, Sesa Lehto, Jukka Rautiainen, Jukka Salmi, Heikki Heimo, Erkki Lahti, Pihla Penttinen, Helena Vierikko, Jari Elsilä, Vesa Häkli, Jouni Kosenius, Marko Helmi, Janne Ajanti, Tommi Korpela, Clas-Ove Bruun, Joonas Tapola, Paju, Nauri Nykänen, Panu Vauhkonen, Jukka Ropponen, Jukka Uhlgr´En, Katri Korander, Tokela, Jarmo Haapanen, Bobby Nieminen, Roger Niemi Nen, Mitja Tuurala, Teemu Väisänen, Svante Korkiakoski, Roy Rosenblad, Silu Seppälä, Pertti Sveholm, Juhani Niemelä, Juha Springare, Tommi Hytti, Pasi Kokkoniemi, Mika Roiha, Kati Outinen, Anna-Maria Klintrup, Jarmo Hemilä, Matti Oinonen, Arto Reinikainen, Pertti Wilska, Kari Lehto, Lassi Halme, Risto Jeronen, Esa Nenonen, Ismo Ahola, Arto Korkeakoski, Jarkko Käpynen, Ari Levomäki, Kari-Pekka Lindström, Mika Lindström, Heikki Metsämäki, Tapio Von Muller, Sami Ruuskanen, Markku Tirronen, Pertti Lahtinen, Aarre Karen, Ari Härkönen, Juri Inno, Alpo Seppälä, Marco Taskinen, Mika Tuuhea, Marja Packalen, Kari Pulkkinen, Maj-Lis Doktar, Outi Mäkelä, Päivi Paldan, Risto Haimelin
Director: Aki Kaurismaki
Countries: Finland / Germany / France
Language: Finnish (English subtitles)
USA & UK: 78 mins
UK Certificate: PG contains mild violence
USA Release Date: 13 June 2007 (Limited Release - New York and Los Angeles)
UK Release Date: 6 April 2007 (Limited Release)
US Distributor
UK Distributor
Synopsis
LIGHTS IN THE DUSK addresses loneliness, a theme often discussed. The viewer has, however, perhaps in almost every instance been spared the main issue itself. This image of loneliness has no back doors, sentimentality or small idealizing touches with which one loses - perhaps everything. The romantic lighting and fairytale quality Kaurismäki often uses in a magical fashion are missing from LIGHTS IN THE DUSK. The opening city scene is the finest and most complex sketch by the great depicter of cities, presenting inside each other the celebrated glossy image of the official Fin-land, and the merciless street level - the Ruoholahti area in Helsinki as a labyrinth of consciousnesses and architecture.
Finland, too, prospers, better than ever. Koistinen, the security guard (Janne Koistinen), is also in direct touch with success. He guards large fortunes. The place where he works and the place where his humble home is are both within an area that is a metaphor of success. From the shadows, however, tormented citizens emerge. An everyday sadism oozes out everywhere, as if a willingness transmuted into the being of its practitioners. The violence reflects the psychological malaise - of everyone. Koistinen, too, gets beaten up several times, the beatings occurring like the lunar cycles.
LIGHTS IN THE DUSK concludes a series of three films described as "The Loser Trilogy". The two pre-ceding films DRIFTING CLOUDS and THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST were also screened in the Cannes Film Festival Competition Series. THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST was a story about life that had to be rebuilt. LIGHTS IN THE DUSK is also a tale of a shadowy man, or perhaps rather a story where the world has turned shadowy for a man upholding old-fashioned virtues and humanity. In their place stand betrayal and deceit, together with the absurd state of insolent division of income, sharp as a theorem: property is, concealed or openly, theft.