Shadows in Paradise (1986) Varjoja paratiisissa (original title)

Director:

Aki Kaurismäki

Writer:

Aki Kaurismäki

Release Date:

17 October 1986 (Finland)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

An episode in the life of Nikander, a garbage man, involving the death of a co-worker, an affair and much more.

Plot Keywords:

Finnish | Date | Hope | Asking For A Date | Dating

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Matti Pellonpää	...	Nikander
Kati Outinen	...	Ilona Rajamäki
Sakari Kuosmanen	...	Melartin
Esko Nikkari	...	Co-worker (työkaveri)
Kylli Köngäs	...	Ilona's Girlfriend (ystävätär)
Pekka Laiho	...	Shop Steward (myymälänhoitaja)
Jukka-Pekka Palo	...	Third Man (kolmasmies)
Svante Korkiakoski	...	Police (poliisi)
Mari Rantasila	...	Nikander's Sister (Nikanderin sisar)
Safka Pekkonen	...	Pianist (pianisti) (as Safka)
Antti Ortamo	...	2nd pianist (pianisti II)
Mato Valtonen	...	Pelle (as Markku Valtonen)
Sakke Järvenpää	...	Staffan (as Sakari Järvenpää)
Ulla Kuosmanen	...	Melartin's wife (Melartinin vaimo)
Neka Haapanen	...	Cook (kokki)
Pentti Koski	...	Singer (laulusolisti)
Ari Korhonen
Teuvo Rissanen
Erkki Rissanen
Sirkka Silin
Marina Martinoff
Jussi Tiitinen
Riikka Kuosmanen
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Aki Kaurismäki	...	Hotel receptionist (uncredited)

Directed by
Aki Kaurismäki

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Aki Kaurismäki

Produced by
Mika Kaurismäki	....	producer

Cinematography by
Timo Salminen

Film Editing by
Raija Talvio

Art Direction by
Pertti Hilkamo
Heikki Ukkonen

Costume Design by
Tuula Hilkamo

Makeup Department
Leena Kouhia	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Jaakko Talaskivi	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Pauli Pentti	....	assistant director

Art Department
Pertti Hilkamo	....	property master
Heikki Ukkonen	....	property master

Sound Department
Juuso Hirvikangas	....	assistant sound recordist
Jouko Lumme	....	sound editor
Jouko Lumme	....	sound
Kjell Westman	....	sound mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Marja-Leena Helin	....	still photographer
Timo Markko	....	assistant camera
Mikko Mattila	....	lighting technician
Heikki Ortamo	....	assistant camera
Olli Varja	....	lighting technician

Editorial Department
Eila Karkkunen	....	negative cutter
Timo Nousiainen	....	color grader
Jukka Nykänen	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Haije Alanoja	....	production secretary
Marja-Leena Helin	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Villealfa Filmproduction Oy

Distributors

• Al!ve AG (2007) (Germany) (DVD) (Aki Kaurismäki Collection I)
• Criterion Collection, The (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Eclipse from the Criterion Collection (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Finnkino

Also Known As:

"Varjoja paratiisissa" - Finland (original title)

Runtime:

USA:76 min

Country:

Finland

Language:

Finnish | Swedish | English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:S | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Helsinki, Finland

Company:

Villealfa Filmproduction Oy

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Nikander and Ilona leave the gas station and ride down the road, they pass a white car. The white car is standing still in the middle of the road. Presumably they drove so fast that they passed the white car, but it stands still.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Nikander:Friday!
Co-worker:[co-worker is offering Nikander a drink] You want?
Nikander:I'm driving.
Co-worker:Listen, Nikander. We've been a team quite a while. But I've been doing this for 25 years. I'm getting tired and so is my heart.
Nikander:What's the matter with it?
Co-worker:What ever.
Co-worker:I've got an idea - my own company. Five trucks to start with...
Nikander:What does it end?
Co-worker:The sky is the limit. The state and the banks will back us. I know everything about this game, but I'm not going to die behind the wheel.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Matka suomalaiseen elokuvaan: Kaupunkiblues (#1.3)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Jungle Rock

Where is the paradise?

The foremost question is where there is here a paradise. Usually, the 30 - 40 years old Finnish men in Kaurismäki's movies look around 5o. They work hard, some of them night shift, in their scarce leisure time they sit in some bar drinking vodka and sometimes picking up a girl for a night or two. From Kaurismäki's movies, it seems that every man does do that, so that the patterns are also known to the women and therefore there is no need for further explanation. This is called Kaurismäki's minimalist style, and not seldom it leads to quite unexpected humor.

Nikander (lit. "Victory-Man"), the protagonist of "Shadows in Paradise", is one of these losers, but with the exception that he wants to change his situation and thus had started to learn English early. Together with his older colleague, he plans to open his own business. One day, his colleague is killed during work by a sadden heart attack. Nikander meets shortly after the pretty Ilona one of whose specialties is loosing her jobs. Now they start an in- and out-relationship. Ilona comes back to Nikander whenever she is in trouble, this time she stole a cash box filled with money from the supermarket that gave her the notice because the director's daughter needed a position and an apartment.

Marriage is always considered an arrangement amongst losers in Kaurismäki's movies. In "Ariel" (1988), Kasurinen and Irmeli just have two vacancies. In "Lights in the Dusk", the very beautiful Mirja, entering an almost completely empty restaurant, and sitting down at Koistinen's table, starts to speak very personally to him. When he tells her, they could now leave for a bar, then sleep together and afterward getting married, the two faces show no reaction. Is Paradise the reign or the absence of all bother, then paradise must mean, in Kaurismäkis movies the absence of any light that comes into the darkness of these losers, since this light could bring them down to a dark path.