The rural idyll of an adoring couple is shattered by a city slicker in Aki Kaurismäki's bold attempt to turn back the cinematic clock to the monochromed silent era. Typically, the fourth adaptation of Juhani Aho's tale of corrupted innocence is easily the least conventional. But, while Kaurismäki's fully conversant with the silent style, he succumbs to the temptation to punctuate the action with intrusive background sounds.

Beautiful cinematography by Timo Salminen.

Silent film soundtrack, subtitles in English, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.

For me, the best part of the movie is the soundtrack. Outstanding! But the movie itself is a little gem. Only Kaurismaki could dare get away with and suceed with a "silent" film in black & white set in Finland and made in the late 1990s. Indeed he creates poetry out of the prosaic.

Any Kaurismaki fan must see it. It's just a little masterpiece.