Written and directed by Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki, “Fallen Leaves” won a major jury prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Although unknown in the U.S., Kaurismaki has made at least forty films and is popular with European audiences. He has a distinctive talent for achieving verisimilitude, which he attributes to his insistence that his actors learn their lines but rehearse with each other as little as possible. As a result, most of the scenes are shot in one take, a practice he feels leads to spontaneity and authenticity.

The film is set in Helsinki, where Ansa (Alma Poysti) works in a grocery store stocking shelves. Her job also includes throwing away food that is past its expiration date. So, she generously allows fellow workers to take food that has already expired. One day, the manager inspects her purse, as she leaves, finds a package of expired food, tells her she has stolen it, and peremptorily fires her.

We next see her washing glasses in a rundown bar. For diversion, Ansa frequently spends evenings at a karaoke bar. Another steady customer at the karaoke bar is Holappa (Jussi Vatanen), whom we have seen as a sheet metal worker at his job. Nice-looking and hard-working, he nevertheless loses his job when he is given a breathalyzer test and found to have been drinking. Both Holappa and Ansa recognize each other when they meet on the street; he invites her for a coffee, and they go to a movie together.

When he offers to walk her home, Ansa declines and instead gives him her phone number. Although categorized as a “rom-com” at the film festival, to Americans, the category seems odd because the tone of “Fallen Leaves” is bleak, and few scenes are joyful or playful. The film never leaves the city, and the sun never seems to shine in Helsinki. The movie also creates a mood of possible menace from without. Although the characters do not voice concern for their country’s safety, a radio plays frequently in the background.

The news is always about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a country that, like Finland, shares a long and vulnerable border with Russia. Kaurismaki also has an eye for the composition of his scenes. Often, an individual is seated alone in a public setting that is reminiscent of an Edward Hopper painting. We hope that the loneliness of our two protagonists will not last forever and that they will somehow find a way to work around the issues that keep them separated. However, one obstacle after another seems to work against this possibility.

Some impediments are minor, such as a lost phone number. Others are major, involving an accident that could have been fatal. However, Kaurismaki’s carefully written screenplay, his minimalist direction, and his skilled actors work a kind of magic that invites audiences to invest in the story he is telling. “Fallen Leaves” is in Finnish with English subtitles and is currently streaming on Prime.

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