Fallen Leaves

Two lost souls find each other in a karaoke bar in Helsinki where time has stood still. Ansa is a shelf-stocker on a zero-hour contract and Holappa is a sandblaster with an unquenchable thirst. Both long for the romantic ideal of unique and eternal love, but life sometimes gets in the way. Their path to happiness is hampered by countless obstacles, from forgotten names, lost phone numbers and wrong addresses to the excessive use of alcohol and the appearance of charming stray dog.

It reads like a cliché for a romantic comedy, but in the hands of director Aki Kaurismäki, it delivers a gem of a tragicomic love story. Fallen Leaves is feel-good cinema from Finland and an uncomplicated ode to romance with which Kaurismäki warmed and captured the hearts of many film lovers at Cannes this year.