Kaurismäki brings his trademark wistfulness, irony and absurdist humour to the conventions of the silent film, utilising beautiful black and white photography, inter-titles and a lush, melodramatic score.
Following the fortunes of Juha, an earnest farm worker whose wife is seduced away from him by a city slicker, the film is both a tribute to and a parody of the genre, delightfully peppered with references to Kaurismäki’s cinematic heroes.