Peter von Bagh Movies

A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.

Arriving in Helsinki, a nameless man is beaten within an inch of his life by thugs, miraculously recovering only to find that he has completely lost his memory. Back on the streets, he attempts to begin again from zero, befriending a moody dog and becoming besotted with a Salvation Army volunteer.

After losing his job and realizing that he is alone in the world, a businessman opts to voluntarily end his life. Lacking courage, he hires a contract killer to do the job. Then, while awaiting his demise, he meets a woman and promptly falls in love.

The ever-poker-faced Ilona loses her job as a restaurant hostess, as her tram driver husband, Lauri, also finds himself out of work. Together they must hit the streets of Helsinki, facing up to hardship and humiliation in their quest for survival, guided through the gloom by a ray of hope.

A farmer's wife is seduced into running away from her stolid older husband by a city slicker, who enslaves her in a brothel.

An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 December 2011. A special projector...

The Midnight Sun Film Festival is held every June in the Finnish village of Sodankylä beyond the arctic circle — where the sun never sets. Founded by Aki and Mika Kaurismäki along with Anssi Mänttäri and Peter von Bagh in 1985, the festival has played host to an international who’s who of...

Renowned filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki, creator of The Man Without a Past (Grand Prix du Jury, 2002 Cannes Film Festival) and acclaimed films such as Ariel, Leningrad Cowboys Go America, and Drifting Clouds, is the subject of AKI KAURISMÄKI, the latest release from the Cinema, of Our Time series. The...

After being struggling to finish his ninth book, an irrelevant author decides to try change his methods.

In the year 2012 historian Raimo Lappalainen wants to illustrate how life was 50 years earlier. He becomes obsessed with the fate of a 1970s nude model Saara Turunen, and finds a perfect actress to reconstruct her life and death in front of a TV camera. Meanwhile, a strike at a nuclear plant is...

Documentary about Finnish film theaters - about their past, disappearance and future. And at the same time universal story how cinema is undeniably connected with life.

Young photography model Susanna and her alienated teenage brother Veli spend the summer of 1969 travelling around Finland, mostly with another girl and her boyfriend. Sporting the latest fashions and trendy hairdos, they naïvely observe and criticise the modern consumer society, advertising, fancy...

Helsinki, Forever is a montage film about the city of Helsinki by the award-winning Finnish film director and academic Peter von Bagh. The film draws a portrait of Helsinki and also acts as an essay on Finnish culture in a wider sense. It shows Helsinki as captured by leading Finnish feature film...

THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE is dedicated to filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki’s longtime friend and collaborator, the film critic and festival programmer Peter von Bagh. In this new video essay, filmmaker Daniel Raim explores Kaurismäki’s oeuvre through the world of von Bagh.

Recollections of a Helsinki Bourgeois

This short document tells the story of Bank of Finland and the history of money in Finland.

Two men and a woman, all rallye drivers, get too closely involved, competing in the race and in love.

An interview with Aki Kaurismäki, with film clips and comments from colleagues.

Piirainen's documentary on the last years of Peter von Bagh.