Aki Kaurismäki

Aki Kaurismäki (born 4 April 1957 Orimattila, Finland) is a movie director and a screenwriter from Finland. In his movies he shows understanding of people who are not very successful in life. He writes in the style of black comedy.
Kaurismäki made his first movie in 1983. It was based on "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
"The Man Without a Past" won the Grand Prix award in the Cannes Film Festival in 2002. It was also an Academy Award nominee for best foreign language movie. The plot is about a man who lost his memory, but gets help from many people whom he meets.
Other Kaurismäki movies include "Leningrad Cowboys Go America" (1989), about a rock and roll band, and "Drifting Clouds" (1996) about how an unemployed couple manages in life.