When morning dawns on the Bosporus strait and a zombie sits down for a morning beer, you know you’re in for an absurdly funny ride.
In director Mika Kaurismäki’s melancholic comedy Zombie and the Ghost Train, a Finnish musician, lost and far removed both physically and mentally from his former life, finds himself in Istanbul. Silu Seppälä, bass player for Sleepy Sleepers and Leningrad Cowboys, plays the Zombie as a quiet outsider unable to live up to the expectations of society. His escape abroad is less a choice than an attempt to find a place where he is not expected to fulfill any role. Love, alcoholism, and the shadow cast by the titular ghost band thrust the Zombie toward the unexpected in this melancholic, intimate, and timeless portrayal of alienation.
The film’s combination of laconic humor, restrained narration, and fragile humanity is a breath of fresh air for the Finnish film scene. Shot during the Gulf War, the film includes a shot of a bird smeared in oil that remains relevant to this day as a timely reflection concerning humanity and the state of the world we live in.
Kaurismäki builds the film around Seppälä’s personality with an almost documentary approach, earning both men Jussi Awards, Finland’s highest film honors. In her film review for Helsingin Sanomat (Finland’s largest subscription newspaper), Helena Ylänen named Zombie as Kaurismäki’s most beautiful film.
Otto Kylmälä