Roland Barthes once said that photography is death at work. Risto Jarva’s Game of Luck demonstrates that too – at least when viewed in the summer of 2024: Kaisa Korhonen, who (in one of her rare appearances on film) played one of the main characters, and Kaj Chydenius, the composer of two songs heard in the film, have recently passed away. In the background, Helsinki, too, is dying. But it is also prophetically reborn, tearing and constructing, with an inevitability that is characteristic of modernity.
That same inevitability is present in Game of Luck. Even though hints of its international new-wave models occasionally peek through the seams, the film’s historic breakaway from plot-driven storytelling still has a Finnish feel to it. To (over)simplify: Finnish film has not been more modern or more urban since.
“The master plan, the master plan,” repeats the architect in defense of the city’s new zoning plans. Game of Luck’s master plan has its issues, but Anneli Sauli, Jaakko Pakkasvirta and Eija Pokkinen’s portrayal of the young urbanites’ summer days has undeniable pace and vivacity. With abandon, they set out towards both light and shade.
Death works hard, but Game of Luck shows us that life works harder. I have “today and the future,” like Kaisa Korhonen sings in the film.
Veli-Matti Huhta