The Man Without a Past

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The Man Without a Past (Finnish: Mies vailla menneisyyttä) is a 2002 Finnish/German film directed by Aki Kaurismäki and starring Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen and Juhani Niemelä. It is the second installment in Kaurismäki's Finland trilogy, the other two films being Drifting Clouds and Lights in the Dusk

Plot

The film begins with an unnamed man arriving by train to Helsinki. After falling asleep in a park, he is mugged and beaten by hoodlums and is severely injured in the head, losing consciousness. He awakes and wanders back to the train station and collapses in its bathroom. He awakes the second time in a hospital and finds that he has lost his memory. He starts his life from scratch, living in container dwellings, finding clothes with help from the Salvation Army and making friends with the poor.

Critical reception and awards

The film has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. As of February 5, 2008, Rotten Tomatoes aggregate review website has registered a rating of 98% while Metacritic, as of the same date, registered a rating of 84% which, according to the website's rating criteria, classifies the reception of the film as Universal acclaim. Film critic Roger Ebert awarded the film 3½ stars out of 4 claiming he "felt a deep but indefinable contentment while Kirk Honeycutt of the The Hollywood Reporter opined that the film "contains not one false note. It is the work of an artist fully in control of his art.

The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002 and won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

References

External links

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Last updated on Wednesday February 13, 2008 at 12:32:24 PST (GMT -0800)
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