Aaltra

At the beginning, I was a bit uncertain. Aaltra was black-and-white and essentially pretty quiet. But after about twenty minutes, the story told me exactly where it was headed to and I started laughing at moments where I would normally have cried tears of sorrow. The directors, who also portrayed the two guys in the wheelchairs, did such a good job that I don’t think anybody else could have been this good. The premise is such that it won’t offend anybody and the jokes will make everybody laugh, especially those who like unorthodox humor at least a little bit. And the last twenty minutes in Finland are out of this world. Aki Kaurismäki knows very well what works for Finland, so he puts in an ultimate performance and he won me over in his five minutes on the screen to such extent that in the upcoming weeks I will try to watch all the movies he has made so far. (17.11.2014)