Fallen Leaves

Original title: Kuolleet lehdet

2023
12A
1h 21m

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

30K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer0:58

Romantic Comedy Comedy Drama Romance

In modern-day Helsinki, two lonely souls in search of love meet by chance in a karaoke bar. However, their path to happiness is beset by obstacles - from lost phone numbers to mistaken addre... Read allIn modern-day Helsinki, two lonely souls in search of love meet by chance in a karaoke bar. However, their path to happiness is beset by obstacles - from lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism, and a charming stray dog.In modern-day Helsinki, two lonely souls in search of love meet by chance in a karaoke bar. However, their path to happiness is beset by obstacles - from lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism, and a charming stray dog.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

30K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

3,721

815

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 9 wins & 57 nominations

Videos2

Trailer 0:58

Official Trailer

Clip 1:28

Fallen Leaves (Trailer)

Clip 1:28

Fallen Leaves (Trailer)

Photos87

+ 83

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The film Ansa and Holappa see in the cinema is The Dead Don't Die (2019), which was directed by Jim Jarmusch. Jarmusch has said he has been influenced by Kaurismäki, appearing in Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989) and set part of his own film Night on Earth (1991) in Finland, where he used several of Kaurismäki's regular actors.

Goofs
The sequence of radio news reports about the Russo-Ukrainian War is not in chronological order. For example, the Mariupol hospital airstrike is mentioned at the very beginning of the film, whereas a report on the Mariupol theatre airstrike is heard in the second half, even though there's only a week of difference between those events. Between those bulletins there are several others about the events having happened in the summer and in the autumn of 2022. This is impossible in the reality of the film, because its narrative is completely linear.

Quotes
Holappa: Remember The night you sang karaoke?
Hannes Huotari: And sang well?
Holappa: And sang well
Hannes Huotari: I'm still waiting for the record company and the tour manager to call
Holappa: Maybe they weren't around
Hannes Huotari: Such a performance should have the word spreading
Holappa: There were the two... women
Hannes Huotari: Dames, gals, skirts, Sheilas. I wasn't good enough. Too old, I was told
Holappa: I met the smaller one later. We almost got married.
Hannes Huotari: Why didn't you? pretty girl, though a quiet one
Holappa: I lost her phone number.
Hannes Huotari: Why don't you ask the directory?
Holappa: I don't know her name.
Hannes Huotari: That certainly is a slight problem

Crazy credits
The closing credits end with 'Dedicated to the memory of Harri Marstio.' in Finnish.

Connections
Featured in Amanda the Jedi Show: Never Trust the Standing Ovations | CANNES 2023 Indiana Jones, Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Soundtracks
Takedan kehtolaulu
Traditional
Performed by Toshitake Shinohara

User reviews81

Review

Featured review

9/10

Go to the cinema and fall in love...

..not with the movie, but with another seeker. That seems to be the main idea of Kaurismäki's movie Fallen Leaves.

Life is hard and monotonous. It's also petty, particularly when you're on low wages. So find someone to squeeze. Have a go at a bit of solidarity too.

Ansa and Holappa are both working annoying jobs in modern day Finland. They listen to news of the latest atrocities from the Russian army in Ukraine, they have a cigarette or a swig, they sit in unhappy bars, they struggle with their bosses, they are lonely. They admire the cinema.

Some of the vignettes are well informed about poverty, earlier in my life I worked in a supermarket where we would be in trouble if we took out-of-date food, even though we were hungry and were being made to throw it in the bin. The bosses' view was that we would deliberately let things go off, or over prepare fresh food if we were allowed to take the out-of-date food away. When we have money we take for granted things like internet access, when you don't someone will gouge you for a few minutes access.

Spend some time with someone who catches your fancy, use some energy to not mess it up. There's no sex in the movie and I quite like that in a society that over-fixates on fetishized addiction sex. Sometimes it's just lovely to have company, to talk and listen to music, just to feel their presence. Wouldn't you like a person round the house oh lonely cinema goer?