“Heartwarming… a great accomplishment”—On April 8, see Long Good Thursday, Finnish director Mika Kaurismaki‘s fourth installment of the rollicking Grump film series!
Set in the lush days of a Finnish summer, Long Good Thursday is a gentle comedy of growing older and of accepting the never-ending possibility of finding joy. Finnish comedy star Heikki Kinnunen plays an aging, stubborn farmer intent on finishing his life in the home he shared with his late wife. Much to his surprise, he finds himself smitten with a free-spirited artist, called Saimi, who is intent on using him as a model for her photography.
His sons are skeptical– even jealous –of their father, and don’t trust Saimi’s intentions. Who knows, maybe she’s after his inheritance? Family meetings, misunderstandings, swimming in the moonlight, and sleepless nights show that the power of love can pierce through even the oldest of flannel shirts.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Mika Kaurismaki‘s film The Liar (1980) was an overnight sensation when first shown in Finland; it marked the beginning of the cinema of the Kaurismäki brothers and started a new era in the Finnish cinema. After the success of The Liar, Mika Kaurismäki decided to stay in Finland and, together with his brother and some friends, he founded the production company Villealfa Filmproductions, which soon became a home of vital low- or no-budget filmmaking; by the end of the 80’s it was the third-largest Finnish film production company of all time. During the active Villealfa years, Mika co-founded the legendary Midnight Sun Film Festival (1986), the distribution company Senso Films (1987) and the Andorra cinemas in Helsinki. In 2003, he was a member of the jury at the 25th Moscow International Film Festival. His film, The Road North, starring Vesa-Matti Loiri and Samuli Edelmann, premiered in Finland in August 2012, and was a success with more than 200,000 viewers by the end of September of that year.