Aki Kaurismäki

Aki Olavi Kaurismäki, a Finnish film director and screenwriter, is best known for his award-winning films such as Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002), Le Havre (2011), The Other Side of Hope (2017) and Fallen Leaves (2023). He is also known for Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989) and has been recognized as Finland's most renowned film director. Before his cinema career, Kaurismäki engaged in various jobs including bricklaying, postal services, and dish cleaning. He first rose to prominence co-screenwriting and acting in films directed by his older brother, Mika Kaurismäki. Aki made a name for himself as an independent director with his adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novel Crime and Punishment set in modern Helsinki and reached worldwide fame following Leningrad Cowboys Go America. His style is minimalistic and he is considered an auteur, writing, directing, producing and editing his own films, which introduces his personal 'drollery and deadpan' style. Much of his work revolves around Helsinki with critical and unromantic view.

Kaurismäki's influence includes French directors Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Becker, and Robert Bresson, Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu, American director John Cassavetes, with some critics also noting the influence of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. His films contain a humorous side, comparable to the films of Jim Jarmusch, who had a cameo in Kaurismäki's film Leningrad Cowboys Go America. In dealing with the digital shift in cinema, he initially opposed it, but later reconciled to it for the sake of audience accessibility.