A game of billiards in Helsinki in a cinematic temple

BarcelonaThere are artists who polarize: You either love them or you can't even stand them. We fans of Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki defend him without listening to the criticism of those who want to send him to the stake. Kaurismäki has been making films in his own style for decades, with serious actors, rockers with impossible hairstyles, and a gray Helsinki. He argues that he only makes films to feed his dogs. Dogs always appear in his films. A good sign.

In 2023, Kaurismäki returned to the fray with Fallen leaves. Where some magnificent dogs appear, of course. A love story between seemingly hopeless workers, who make do with low-paying, drab jobs. A film that finds beauty where it's hard to find. Kaurismäki has no intention of showing a beautiful Helsinki; he must be very disliked by those at the tourist office. And yet, he creates magic. So much so that many of his admirers seek out the locations where he's made his films and discover that the Helsinki imagined by the director exists far from the places tourists flock to. Finland is still the state that in recent months has been advertising its charms with a campaign in which it sells itself as "the happiest country in the world," even though at the same time it has a high rate of alcoholism and suicide.

The last film was made almost exclusively in the Kallio neighborhood, in the north of the city. A working-class neighborhood of cold buildings where many Eastern European immigrants used to live, eating in restaurants like Dubrovnik and Odessa, now defunct. Now you find places like Gandhi, an Indian restaurant that has also appeared in the films of a man who, when he finds a bar that seems destined to close, tries to save it by turning it into a film set. Places like the Ravintola Kaisaniemi restaurant, the Tornin Ateljee bar, or the Wall Street Bar. Places that are nothing special, but are part of Kaurismäki's universe. At 22 Eteläinen Hesperiankatu, you will find the old cinema where some of the most famous scenes from "The Last Supper" were filmed. Fallen leaves

Kaurismäki finds humor and love in the mud. And so he's managed to make Corona Bar famous, a place where billiards was played for decades. There used to be many billiard bars around the world, but they've been closing. The manager and his brother bought this one in the 1990s and saved it. But five years ago, they faced reality and had to move Corona Bar because the building was collapsing. Gentrification has also reached the Kallio neighborhood. So in 2024, they reopened it in the old Pasilan Konepaja train station. A bigger and more beautiful place where he's also been able to open a restaurant named Dubrovnik in honor of the man who was locked away years ago in Kallio. A new life in a world that, thankfully, isn't disappearing.

Recommendation for traveling to Helsinki

Film: Fallen leaves

Director: Aki Kaurismäki

Year: 2023