Aki Kaurismäki

Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (bahasa Finlandia: [ˈɑki ˈkɑu̯rismæki]; lahir 4 April 1957; Orimattila) adalah seorang sutradara, penulis skenario, produser, editor, dan aktor film asal Finlandia. Ia terkenal karena film pemenang penghargaan Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002), Le Havre (2011), The Other Side of Hope (2017) dan Fallen Leaves (2023), serta untuk mockumentary Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). Ia digambarkan sebagai sutradara film paling terkenal di Finlandia. Dia adalah adik dari sutradara dan penulis skenario Mika Kaurismäki. Setelah lulus dalam studi media dari Universitas Tampere, Kaurismäki bekerja sebagai tukang batu, tukang pos, dan pencuci piring, jauh sebelum menekuni minatnya di bidang perfilman, pertama sebagai kritikus, dan kemudian sebagai penulis skenario & sutradara. Dia memulai karirnya sebagai penulis skenario dan aktor dalam film yang dibuat oleh kakak laki-lakinya, Mika Kaurismäki. Dia memainkan peran utama dalam film Mika, The Liar (1981). Bersama-sama mereka mendirikan perusahaan produksi Villealfa Filmproductions dan kemudian Festival Film Midnight Sun. Debutnya sebagai sutradara independen adalah Kejahatan dan Hukuman (1983), sebuah adaptasi dari novel Dostoyevsky yang berlatar Helsinki modern. Dia mendapat perhatian dunia dengan Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). Film Kaurismäki Ariel (1988) dimasukkan ke dalam Festival Film Internasional Moskow ke-16 dan memenangkan Prix FIPRESCI. Film Kaurismäki yang paling terkenal adalah Pria Tanpa Masa Lalu, yang memenangkan Grand Prix dan Hadiah Juri Ekumenis di Festival Film Cannes 2002 dan dinominasikan pada Academy Award dalam kategori Film Berbahasa Asing Terbaik pada tahun 2003. Namun, Kaurismäki menolak menghadiri upacara Oscar, dengan menyatakan bahwa ia tidak ingin berpesta di negara yang sedang berperang. Film Kaurismäki berikutnya, Lights in the Dusk, juga terpilih menjadi nominasi Finlandia untuk film berbahasa asing terbaik, namun Kaurismäki kembali memboikot penghargaan tersebut dan menolak nominasi tersebut, sebagai protes terhadap kebijakan luar negeri Presiden AS George W. Bush. Pada tahun 2002 Kaurismäki juga memboikot Festival Film New York ke-40 untuk menunjukkan solidaritas dengan sutradara Iran Abbas Kiarostami, yang tidak diberikan visa AS pada saat festival tersebut. Film Kaurismäki tahun 2017 The Other Side of Hope memenangkan penghargaan Silver Bear untuk Sutradara Terbaik di Festival Film Internasional Berlin ke-67. Di festival yang sama ia juga mengumumkan bahwa itu akan menjadi film terakhirnya, meskipun pensiunnya tidak berlangsung lama karena ia mulai syuting Fallen Leaves pada tahun 2022, yang ditayangkan perdana di Festival Film Cannes pada tahun 2023.

Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (Finnish: [ˈɑki ˈkɑu̯rismæki]; born April 4,1957; Orimattila) is a Finnish film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and actor. He is best known for the award-winning Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002), Le Havre (2011), The Other Side of Hope (2017) and Fallen Leaves (2023), as well as for the mockumentary Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). He is described as Finland's best-known film director. He is the younger brother of director and screenwriter Mika Kaurismäki. After graduating in media studies from the University of Tampere, Kaurismäki worked as a bricklayer, postman, and dish-washer, long before pursuing his interest in cinema, first as a critic, and later as a screenwriter & director. He started his career as a co-screenwriter and actor in films made by his older brother, Mika Kaurismäki. He played the main role in Mika's film The Liar (1981). Together they founded the production company Villealfa Filmproductions and later the Midnight Sun Film Festival. His debut as an independent director was Crime and Punishment (1983), an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novel set in modern Helsinki. He gained worldwide attention with Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). Kaurismäki's film Ariel (1988) was entered into the 16th Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Prix FIPRESCI. Kaurismäki's most acclaimed film has been The Man Without a Past, which won the Grand Prix and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category in 2003. However, Kaurismäki refused to attend the Oscar ceremony, asserting that he did not feel like partying in a country that was in a state of war. Kaurismäki's next film, Lights in the Dusk, was also chosen to be Finland's nominee for best foreign-language film, but Kaurismäki again boycotted the awards and refused the nomination, as a protest against U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy. In 2002 Kaurismäki also boycotted the 40th New York Film Festival in a show of solidarity with the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who was not given a US visa in time for the festival. Kaurismäki's 2017 film The Other Side of Hope won the Silver Bear for Best Director award at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. At the same festival he also announced that it would be his last film, although the retirement was short-lived as he began filming Fallen Leaves in 2022, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023.