Koistinen is a night watchman at a shopping mall in the Finnish capital Helsinki; he is treated with contempt by his boss and by his co-workers but he has a dream of opening his own security firm. It soon becomes apparent that this dream will never be realised when he goes to see his bank manager to arrange the necessary financing and it turned down; the manager thinking Koistinen is wasting both of their time. One day it looks as if things might be getting better for him when an attractive woman, Mirja, sits opposite him in a bar and after a short chat invites him to ask her out. Of course things can't be that good for him; she is just using him to gain the security codes for a jewellery store so the men she works for can rob it. They aren't content to just rob the store they also frame him so he ends up spending a year in prison; but even after all that he doesn't tell the authorities about Mirja.
This film was nothing like I expected; it is film making at its most minimalist; there is almost no display of emotions and the settings are consistently bleak. Janne Hyytiäinen and Maria Järvenhelmi do well as Koistinen and Mirja; their characters may have zero chemistry between them but somehow it suits the cold feel of the film. Koistinen may not be the most sympathetic of characters but I found myself curious to find out what would happen to him and was ultimately pleased when the ending suggested that things might be about to get better for him. While this film lacks exciting action, laughs and likable characters it is worth watching if only because it is so different from typical Hollywood fare; also at seventy eight minutes it doesn't waste much time if it turns out you don't like it.
This film was nothing like I expected; it is film making at its most minimalist; there is almost no display of emotions and the settings are consistently bleak. Janne Hyytiäinen and Maria Järvenhelmi do well as Koistinen and Mirja; their characters may have zero chemistry between them but somehow it suits the cold feel of the film. Koistinen may not be the most sympathetic of characters but I found myself curious to find out what would happen to him and was ultimately pleased when the ending suggested that things might be about to get better for him. While this film lacks exciting action, laughs and likable characters it is worth watching if only because it is so different from typical Hollywood fare; also at seventy eight minutes it doesn't waste much time if it turns out you don't like it.