The Man With No Past (2002) Movie Information:

The Man With No Past (2002) Directed by: Aki Kaurismäki The Man With No Past (2002) Written by: Aki Kaurismäki The Man With No Past (2002) Cast: Not available at this time

The Man With No Past (2002) U.S. Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics The Man With No Past (2002) U.K. Distributor: UIP

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The Man With No Past (2002) Synopsis:

The second part of Aki Kaurismäki's "Finland" trilogy, the film follows a man who arrives in Helsinki.

The Man With No Past (2002) Movie Review:

The protagonist wastes no time in losing his identity to street thugs in this engaging Academy nomination for Best Foreign Language film from Finland. It is slow going at first, but we not only get a view from the outskirts of town through Finnish eyes, but we get to experience what it would be like to lose our identity to the point of having to prove we exist.

Markku Peltola does a wonderful job, taking us with him on his journey of re-discovery. It's not an easy jaunt, as the Finns are a hearty bunch where individuality and self-sufficiency rule. They rarely engage strangers under normal circumstances, much less extenuating ones. There is reasonable suspicion of a person who doesn't even know his own name. He has battles with himself as well as the skeptical.

"M" starts with nothing but his battered body after Finland's universal healthcare gets him back on his feet. He makes friends with a man who thinks he's dead while lying by a lake and starts the ball rolling back to normal life. The fun is in the journey. While he meets cold resistance from some folks and bureaucratic indifference from some clerks of the state, there is enough kindness from strangers when he most needs it.

This is a simple story, simply told, but splendid none-the-less. Director Aki Kaurismaki is a master storyteller here with an appreciation of life's real values. It's a taste of Europe on a budget down the road less traveled for the adventurer in all of us. And there was not one Nokia flip phone in the entire film!

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The Man With No Past (2002) review written by: TR Black