Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö

Repressed, exploited, outcast: Iris (Kati Outinen) works in a noisy match factory checking the matchboxes on a production line and isn’t so much out of place as forcibly yanked out of her already lonely, dreary existence. Her mother and stepfather are only after her meagre salary. After spending a night with Aarne, he gets her pregnant and promptly abandons her. At the end of this path of suffering depicted in minimalist fashion, Iris unleashes her pent-up feelings in merciless fashion. For all its smart dramatic use of color, this final part of the “Proletarian Trilogy” is the darkest of Aki Kaurismäki’s entirely distinctive cinematic worlds. (mg)