Excepting maybe Renny Harlin and Dome Karukoski, Mika Kaurismäki is Finland’s most international film director. Even his first feature-length film The Worthless ultimately leads to Paris, and the second, Rosso, begins in Sicily.
Mika Kaurismäki has stated that he made Rosso in order to learn Italian. Not a bad reason per se, but fortunately the project has proved rewarding for viewers, too, who have gotten more out of the film than from many other domestically shot productions.
However, the film’s journey ultimately takes a turn toward Finnish turf after all, with only a detour through Sicily along the way. At the outset, horns sound under the Mediterranean sun, and Timo Salminen’s impressive camerawork reveals the slouching figure of the titular character: mafia man Giancarlo ”Siankarlo” Rosso (Kari Väänänen).
Rosso is sent to Finland, tasked with tracking down his former lover Marja (Leena Harjupatana in her only film role). But in his search, he finds her thoroughbred Ostrobothnian brother Martti (Martti Syrjä of Eppu Normaali) instead.
When the two set off on a tour around southern Finland together, we get to the heart of this road movie: the landscape of the soul that unfolds along the way. At the film’s high point, the Italian crook and the cantankerous Finn find common ground through a boozy, bilingual duet of the same schlager tune.
Timo Malmi