The Man Without a Past | Review

Finnish delight is a brilliant piece of filmmaking.

Imagine this scenario as a possible nightmare. You suddenly wake-up and realize that your native tongue is Finnish, that your field of vision is obstructed by bandages and a sharp pain from the major bump on your head and not only do you not have an idea as to what happened to you, – but you have absolutely no clue as to where you come from or who you are. Filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki’s Cannes film festival Grand Prize of the Jury winner masterfully captures the essence of one man’s struggle to make a better life for himself when all he has is nothing.

The Man Without a Past, which also goes by the catchy Finnish title of: Mies vailla menneisyyttä couldn’t be more intriguing enough- a man gets off a train and has the misfortune to pick the wrong spot to rest in making him the prime target for a trio of thugs. A brutal beating which is reminiscent of the Singin’ in the rain ballad in Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange alters his life forever. The man without a name-played by actor Markku Peltola has the odds stacked up against him-but the amnesic man without a penny (or Finnish mark) to his name is naturally resourceful. Kaurismäki’s film is visually seductive with textured and superbly edited mise-en scenes which are comparable in quality to Scandinavian countryman Roy Andersson’s Songs from the Second Floor. The cement grays and skyline pale blues that cover the ice-cold landscape magnificently texturalize each shot and frame, the beauty in the image transcends into the tone of the picture- a simple, subtle and sensitive quality to the film that magnifies one sequence after another.

Kaurismäki uses a deliberate slow pace to the film-lets every single moment sink in, when an aged man slurps away at his bowl of soup,-we eat each spoonful with him, when the protagonist takes on a new chore we go through the painstaking steps with him. Metaphorically illustrated by his miniature potato garden, each day that passes by allows him to grow-and strangers who were strangers easily become friends. From the meager beginnings of living in an abandoned shipping container-he collects a jukebox, a couple of contacts and a girlfriend- a salvation army employee by the name of Erma played Kati Outinen,-she’s gives a cold Frankenstein look, but he sees past this and goes to all the preliminaries of the first date which lead to the first kiss- a la television’s The Wonder Years. What sets this film apart from the others is perhaps not only the quality of the image but the simplicity in the character actions and motivation-in one part you find yourself pulling for the soft-spoken underdog, while in other moments you can’t help but laugh at the irony of it all. In a space of this witty-drama we witness our hero defy eviction and the threats from a pouch named Hannibal, becomes the marketing manger for the salvation army band and avoids a long jail term by getting the support of an appointed lawyer who eloquently recites every code, chapter and law in the book. Those local art-house cinemas are there for a reason!,- films such as these are at times somber, cold and somewhat noir but this film is the best remedy for showing the uplifting spirit in the human condition-check it out it may be the best picture you’ll see this year.

Rating 4.5 stars