Mika KaurismäkiFilmography

Three Wise Men

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Synopsis: Three old friends approaching middle age ponder the inability to connect to the ones they love most, ultimately deciding to drown their sorrows together on Christmas Eve following a chance meeting in a local hospital. Expectant father Matti is completely paralyzed by how own self-doubt. Likewise Read More

Sonic Mirror

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Billy Cobham

Synopsis: The multi-award-winning Finnish documentarian Mika Kaurismäki, brother of Aki Kaurismäki (The Man Without a Past), helms the nonfiction work Sonic Mirror -- a protracted exploration of rhythm as one of life's driving forces. Revered drummer Billy Cobham serves as host, taking the audience on a Read More

Brasileirinho

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Thelma De Freitas

Synopsis: Innumerable documentaries have explored the essence and cultural legacy of such universalized strands of Brazilian music as samba<>I> and bossa nova; Finnish director Mika Kaurismaki's Brasileirinho) represents the first to unearth and dissect the highly regional Brazilian musical strain Read More

Honey Baby

Crew: Director, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Henry Thomas, Irina Björklund, Helmut Berger, Kari Väänänen, Helena Gorbunova, Katerina Golanova

Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus

Actors: Hany Abu-Assad, Pedro Almodóvar, Vicente Aranda, Bruno Barde, Xavier Beauvois

Moro No Brasil

Crew: Co-producer, Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Grupo Gleetwtxya, Children Fulni-o, Grupo Fethxa, Setka, Band Fulni-o

Synopsis: Mika Kaurismaki's documentary Moro No Brasil features performances by a variety of Brazilian musical artists, intertwined with interviews of every day Brazilians in order to give the viewer a portrait of Brazilian culture. The film includes performances by Silberio Pessoa, Darue Malungo, and Read More

Highway Society

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Kai Wiesinger, Marie Zielcke, Jochen Nickel, Hannes Hellmann, Michaela Rosen

Synopsis: Acclaimed Finnish director Mika Kaurismaki helms this deadpan, oddball road movie. Jack Bogart (Kai Wiesinger) is a dodgy car mechanic living in the backwaters of Germany. His motto is "Live for the moment; that's all that counts," and, indeed, for a moment he hooked up with an older Korean woman (Francisca Tu Read More

L.A. Without a Map

Crew: Co-producer, Director, Screenwriter

Actors: David Tennant, Vinessa Shaw, Julie Delpy, Vincent Gallo, Cameron Bancroft

Synopsis: Mika Kaurismaki directed this British-French-Finnish romantic comedy adapted from Richard Rayner's autobiographical novel about a series of Hollywood misadventures. Vacationing in the North of England, aspiring Los Angeles actress Barbara (Vinessa Shaw) stops briefly in a village where she meets Read More

Vaiennut Kyla

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Imbued with flashes of comedy amidst the suspense, this Finnish mystery follows an urban policeman assigned to oversee the police force of a tiny rural community. There, he immerses himself in solving the case of a teenage girl who was murdered 18 months before. The officer's predecessor blamed Read More

Danske Piger Viser Alt

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This Danish omnibus film consists of 20 shorts, by a bevy of international directors; the project
as a whole was conceived by Danish visual artist Ane Mette Ruge and Dutch opera-director Jacob F. Schokking. The title represents a pun; in addition to its obvious sensationalistic implications Read More

Erotic Tales III

Crew: Director

Actors: Kari Väänänen, Ivan Setta, Antonio Calloni, Bianca Koedam, Gene Bervoets, Annet Malherbe

Condition Red

Crew: Director, Editor

Actors: James Russo, Cynda Williams, Paul Calderon

Synopsis: In this gritty prison thriller, a passionate prison guard finds himself intimate with a sexy inmate and trouble ensues. The guard, Dan Cappelli, works in a Philadelphia jail. He has a hair-trigger violent temper and after brutally defending a fellow guard who was attacked by an inmate, is Read More

Yemanjan Tyttaret

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: A Finnish young woman travels to tropical Rio de Janeiro to search for her estranged sister after she learns from her brother-in-law that the sister mysteriously disappeared two months before. Sini is determined to find her sister and meets in-law Jorge in Brazil. She rebuffs his advances and Read More

Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made

Crew: Director, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Samuel Fuller, Jim Jarmusch

Synopsis: The unique film set within a Karaja village in Brazil's Mato Grosso, Jim Jarmusch listens while Sam Fuller describes the 1950's "Tigrero" movie that he was unable to make. It also profiles the Karaja people. The non-film "Tigrero" had a fascinating history. The name was purchased off a novel by Read More

The Last Border

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jolyon Baker, Fanny Bastien, Jürgen Prochnow, Kari Väänänen, Matti Pellonpää

Synopsis: It is the year 2009, and civilization has almost perished on the planet, choked to death by pollution. The only place it survives is in the frigid far north. There, the few survivors are governed by a harsh military government, and dissenters quickly find themselves rounded up by the murderous Read More

Zombie Ja Kummitusjuna

Crew: Director, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Silu Seppälä, Matti Pellonpää

Synopsis: In a Monty Python skit, Graham Chapman once donned the attire of a Swiss maiden and went about selling honey in Britain door-to-door. When asked by John Cleese whether his job wasn't a miserable, unprofitable one, Chapman answered "It is, but I'd do anything to stay out of Iceland." The country of Read More

Helsinki Napoli All Night Long

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Kari Väänänen, Roberta Manfredi, Nino Manfredi, Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Margi Clarke

Synopsis: Alex (Kari Vaananen) is a Finnish cabbie working in Berlin with plenty of problems in this comedy with film noir touches. With two dead men and a suitcase filled with hundred dollar bills, he has difficulty disposing of the bodies. He is chased by the top crime boss (Samuel Fuller) and his crony (Eddie Constantine Read More

Amazon

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Kari Väänänen, Robert Davi, Rae Dawn Chong, Minna Sovio, Rui Polanah, Ailo Sovio

Synopsis: Finnish director Mika Kaurismaki (who also co-wrote the screenplay) made his English-language feature debut with this tale of foreigners adrift in the treacherous labyrinth of the Brazilian jungle. Kari (Kari Vaananen) is driving down the Trans-Amazonica Highway -- actually a two-lane dirt road Read More

Paperitahti

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Pirkko Hamalainen, Kari Väänänen

Synopsis: In this somewhat leisurely-paced drama, a former model recollects her life and considers what she will do with it now that she can no longer model. She is in jail for killing an abusive boyfriend who has ruined her face for future modeling work. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide Read More

Cha Cha Cha

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Matti Pellonpää, Kari Väänänen

Synopsis: In this antic comedy, a sleazy used-car salesman chooses to become temporarily homeless, and has turned over his home and wife to his best friend so that he can be transformed into a suitably respectable figure to qualify for a large inheritance under the terms of the deceased's will. ~ Clarke Read More

Rosso

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Kari Väänänen, Leena Harjupatana, Martti Syria, Mirja Oksanen

Synopsis: This well-paced farce sends up intellectual thrillers as hitman Rosso (the handsomeKari Vaananen, also co-scripter) is assigned the job of eliminating a certain Finnish woman who coincidentally was once his summer love. The reluctant gangster heads north from Sicily and ultimately lands in the Read More

Klaani: Tarina Sammakoitten Suvusta

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Juhani Niemela, Kari Väänänen, Antti Litja

Synopsis: In this subtly engaging story about two people who fall in love and try to overcome their families' criminal inclinations, the breathtaking summer scenery of Finland sets the backdrop for a personal battle between ethics on the one hand, and a life of petty crime on the other. Young Alex Sammako Read More

Kello

Crew: Editor

Rikos Ja Rangaistus

Crew: Producer

Actors: Markku Toikka, Esko Nikkari

Synopsis: Inspired by Dostoyevsky's famous novel, this engrossing Finnish version of "Crime and Punishment" revolves around an ex-law student in Helsinki (Markku Toikka) who now works in a slaughterhouse. One day the worker searches out the drunk driver that had killed his fiancée and coldly shoots him to Read More

Arvottomat

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Saimaa-Ilmio

Crew: Director, Producer

Valehtelija

Crew: Director