Drifting Clouds

Drifting Clouds (Kauas pilvet karkaavat, 1996) is a Finnish drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Aki Kaurismäki as the final entry in his working-class trilogy. Shot in recession-hit Helsinki, it follows a middle-aged couple who lose their jobs — she ran the floor at the Dubrovnik restaurant, he drove a tram — and refuse to accept defeat.

Ilona and Lauri face eviction notices, pawnshop counters and the particular humiliation of job interviews that go nowhere. Their plan is to scrape enough together and open their own restaurant. It reads like wishful thinking, and Kaurismäki shoots it with the same deadpan patience he brings to every small catastrophe — no swelling music, no speeches.

Kati Outinen and Kari Väänänen carry the film on almost no dialogue, communicating stubbornness the way other actors communicate grief. The film picked up the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes. What lingers is less the hardship than the two of them: still standing, still making plans. Stream Drifting Clouds online on iFILM.