Lights in the Dusk

"Lights in the Dusk" concludes the trilogy began by "Drifting Clouds" and "The Man Without a Past." Where the trilogy's first film was about unemployment and the second about homelessness, this final installment is about loneliness. Shy night-watchman Koistinen is virtually ostracised by his fellow security guards and lives alone in a modest apartment… until he meets blonde-bombshell-of-his-dreams Mirja, who seems to respond to his slightly old-fashioned, even gentlemanly manner. Sadly, however, Koistinen's sense of honour is no longer the norm in a world brutishly devoted to the advancement of social standing, political power and material wealth… Kaurismäki’s delightfully delicate cautionary fable charts his unassuming hero's descent into an unforeseen nightmare of deceit and violence with a characteristically low-key blend of humane compassion and deadpan mordant humour.