Pietari(left)	Discussion in flow

On 7th September, BIFS were very pleased to welcome Pietari Kääpä, from the University of East Anglia, one of the world’s leading experts on Aki Kaurismäki and whose work focuses on the films of Kaurismäki and their national and global contexts. For those interested in finding out more about Kaurismaki, Pietari Kääpä has contributed to the recently published book In Search of Aki Kaurismäki: Aesthetics and Contexts by A. Nestingen (ed).

The Match Factory Girl forms the final part of Kaurismaki's proletarian trilogy (along with Ariel and Shadows in Paradise). Here the Director presents a bleak portrait of contemporary Helsinki in which the protagonist Iris (Kaurismaki regular Kati Outinen) seeks the ultimate revenge on her brutalising parents and the men who humiliate her. Iris is the epitome of the oppressed proletariat, and her experience represents the cynicism and alienation experienced by the underclass in contemporary society. lead actor depicts a sense of lonleliness and despair without sentimentality. Iris' fight back against her oppressive and isolating existence contrasts starkly with the suffocating silence that permeates the film - it has no more than 20 spoken lines, and some are no more than a few words long.

Pietari began our discussion by contextualising the film within its geographical, national and cultural context. He talked about a Finland of contrasts - between rural and urban, traditional and modern - and of a country that suffered significant migration in the 60s, economic collapse in the 90s, accomapnied by a gradual liberation from the influence of the Soviet Union.

Kaurismaki's cinema simultanously engages with global social politics and Finland's domestic setting. He maintains a critical distance from global hollywood whilst reflecting Finland's uncertainty and its displaced sense of history in his films. Displacement is evident for example by the non-specific spatial settings and lack of national landmarks; by the 1950s rock and roll soundtrack; by the beer Iris orders in the 1950s cafetreia, which is out of place in contemporary Finland.

This juxtaposition of time and place is also evident by Kaurismaki's use of national and international imagery - the family only listen to international TV and radio, the novel Iris is given by her mother is a Swedish romantic novel, which she will never be able to understand. In doing so Kaurismaki critiques global capitalism, and presents his characters in a negotiated space between an anti- and pro- globalisation position.

Pietari also explained how Kaurismaki challenges national identity by playing with national stereotypes (such as the stapfather drinking vodka) and introducing characters and settings that are out of place in contemporary Finland. The dancehall in this film, for example, is not the dancehall of typical Finnish films, but is seen from Iris' point of view as a dark, depressing place, whilst the band on stage ironically play 'Fairytaleland' - a song considered the unofficial national anthem in Finland. It is no surprise therefore that some critics accuse Kaurismaki of reinforcing a negative Finnish stereotype.

A lively discussion followed, exploring topics such as social realism vs metaphor in film, how his films compare to his brother's (Mika Kaurismaki) films, and also how this compares to the german fairytale, The Little Match Girl, which the title alludes to. Many were interested in the Director's representation of Finalnd - "Is this what Finnish people are really like?" Pietari's view was that Kaurismaki provided a metaphoric representation of society, one that is not strictly realist. The question of the film's gender politics was also raised, and the way it challenges the romanticised notion of 'true love conquering all' by portraying a woman's agency only being attained by wiping out her oppressors. We ended by considering the extent of Finnish films distributed globally, and the merits or otherwise of Finnish horror film, such as the I Spit On Your Grave - influenced Kuutamosonaatti'(aka Moonlight Sonata).

The discussion concluded with Pietari's recommendations for further Kaurismaki viewing: Calamari Union (1985) - "surreal cinematic wierdness"; Ariel (1988), Drifting Clouds (1996), and I Hired A Contract Killer (1990) - set in London.

Film Notes

Director: Aki Kaurismäki. Starring: Kati Outinen, Elena Salo. Finland 1989. 69 mins. This minimalist masterpiece from Finland, is about a young woman, Iris, who decides to take revenge after being ignored and/or abused by everyone around her. A new red dress leads to a one-night stand, pregnancy and a packet of rat poison that Iris does not intend to take herself! Painful yet funny, the film is an excellent deadpan presentation of the dreary working class life. As ever, Kaurismaki creates compassion in a pitiless world through a careful style combining starkness, intensity, melodrama and dark humour. The starkness of The Match Factory Girl is extreme and the director in a characteristic vein once said in an interview, "I decided to make a film that would make Robert Bresson seem like a director of epic motion pictures!". In just over twenty years, the Finnish director in his late 40s, had acquired a formidable reputation but was known almost only to film societies and film-lovers till "The Man Without a Past" was programmed by the New York Film Festival and was picked up by the rest of the world. The post-film discussion at The Open House will be led by Pietari Kääpä, a researcher based at the University of East Anglia. His work focuses on the films of Kaurismäki and their national, trans-national and global contexts.