Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana (1994)
I adore Aki’s simplicity in his way of making films. The blurb text here “Two Finnish men agree to drive an Estonian woman and a Russian woman to a harbor.” really sums this movie up completely. With a combination of beautiful black and white cinematography and deadpan humor with minimal dialogue, the movie makes for a quite engaging 60 minutes.
The setup almost screams for some sort of romantic subplot with two women getting a ride from two men, on the road for a couple of days having to share hotel rooms. I love how we get none of that. The two guys just promised to drive them, nothing else. No need to utter one word or acknowledge their existence more than necessary. This just creates plenty of hilarious situational scenes. Clearly, you have to connect with Aki Kaurismäki’s unique style of humor, because otherwise this is fairly pointless story.
Rating: 3.5