Lights in the Dusk

Lights in the Dusk (Laitakaupungin valot, 2006) — watch online on iFILM this final chapter of Aki Kaurismäki's Finnish working-class trilogy. Koistinen guards a Helsinki shopping mall at night. Nobody at work speaks to him. He eats alone. He dreams, quietly and without complaint, of something better.

Then an icy blonde named Mirja starts talking to him. He falls hard. She is working for a crime boss who wants access to the jewellery store Koistinen protects. Janne Hyytiäinen plays the role with a stillness that is almost Chaplin-like — a man absorbing every humiliation the city can deliver and still finding the door each morning. Maria Heiskanen appears as a sausage-stand vendor, the one person who sees him clearly. The cinematography is deliberately flat and neon-lit, Helsinki stripped of warmth.

Kaurismäki completed his Loser Trilogy here, following Shadows in Paradise and The Match Factory Girl. The film screened in competition at Cannes 2006. Stream Lights in the Dusk online on iFILM.