Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (1994)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Aki Kaurismäki

Writers:

Sakke Järvenpää (story)
Aki Kaurismäki (story)

Release Date:

24 February 1994 (Germany)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Music

Plot Keywords:

Leningrad Cowboys | Sequel

Cast

Twist-Twist Erkinharju	...	Leningrad Cowboy
Ben Granfelt	...	Leningrad Cowboy
Sakke Järvenpää	...	Leningrad Cowboy
Jore Marjaranta	...	Leningrad Cowboy
Ekke Niiva	...	Leningrad Cowboy
Jyri Närvänen	...	Leningrad Cowboy (as Lyle Närvänen)
Pemo Ojala	...	Leningrad Cowboy
Silu Seppälä	...	Leningrad Cowboy
Mauri Sumén	...	Leningrad Cowboy
Mato Valtonen	...	Leningrad Cowboy
Matti Pellonpää	...	Moses / Vladimir
Kari Väänänen	...	The Mute
André Wilms	...	Lazar / Johnson / Elijah
Nicky Tesco	...	American Cousin
Jacques Blanc	...	Owner of Bingo Parlour

Also Known As:

Die Leningrad Cowboys treffen Moses (Germany)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

Finland | Germany | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:7

Filming Locations:

Amiens, Somme, France

Company:

Pandora Filmproduktion

Quotes:

Vladimir: It is written in the holy Bible that Moses never sees the Promised Land. That is why I, Moses, have to go back to the European Community.

Movie Connections:

References Modern Times (1936)

Soundtrack:

Matuschka

OK sequel to "Leningrad Cowboys Go America"

If you like Kaurismaki's dry humor, you might go for this sequel. It does have its funny bits . . . but a lot of them might go right over your head. I don't think many people would recognize the voice on the radio as the Leningrad Cowboys (L.C. hereafter) check into the hotel with the portrait of George Washington on the wall (Billy Graham, preaching on Isaiah 51:11) and I'm sure there are other things that I missed. It's basically the funny bits that make the film, I guess - the disjointed, non sequitur nature of the film being part of the joke.

You don't really have to understand *why* there are two sets of L.C. (Mexican & Finnish), or the trip from Mexico to Coney Island, or their old manager Vladimir appearing there (claiming to be some reincarnation of Moses). You just have to go with the flow of the zaniness - which includes Moses stealing the nose of the Statue of Liberty (we see the NY Times headline "Statue Nose Stolen" as it's read by Andre Wilms - the bad guy Shemeikka in the 1999 "Juha" by Kaurismaki) who follows the group and claims to be the prophet Jeremiah (or Elijah or Isaiah - he seems to change his identity along the way, claiming to be a CIA agent at one point).

Other amusing bits include the flight to Europe on a prop plane with Moses on the wing holding the nose of the Statue of Liberty, the L.C. playing one song at a Bingo place in France - getting paid in blank Bingo cards and one of them immediately getting "bingo".

There are a number of biblical allusions: Moses walking on water across a pool; Moses and Jeremiah trading quotes, some real ("never cook a kid in his mother's milk", others faux ("do not eat any disgusting thing"); and Moses getting water from a rock (by drilling it with a jackhammer) are just a few. I'll let you guess how he comes upon the burning bush, where the golden calf comes in, and how they run into Kirsi Tykkylainen singing "By the Rivers of Babylon" - lyrics from Psalm 137. (She also sings "Those Were the Days" in the 1992 short of the same day and in the 1993 "Total Balalaika Show").

Going over it in my mind, I'm finding it funnier than when I first saw it. Maybe I was a little tired then; perhaps conflating the events I found amusing lets me forget the bits that dragged for me.