Synopsis
Calamari Union (1985) is Aki Kaurismäki's black-and-white tragicomedy, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Fifteen-odd glum men leave the working-class Helsinki district of Kallio for the seaside neighborhood of Eira. Every one of them is named Frank — every one except a single guy called Pekka.
The actual distance is barely a couple of kilometers. The journey, though, swells into an absurd odyssey of stray dogs, dead streetlights, dingy bars and dead ends that pick off the group one Frank at a time. It plays as a deadpan fable about little men chasing a better life that sits just around the corner and stays out of reach anyway.
Early Kaurismäki is already fully formed here: dry humor with no smile, spare framing, melancholy laced with mockery. His regulars Matti Pellonpää and Kari Väänänen turn up alongside Finnish musicians, lending the film its scruffy rock pulse. One for fans of Finnish art cinema who like their comedy quiet and their pacing slow. Stream Calamari Union online on iFILM.
Starring
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