Fallen Leaves (2023)

This week’s installment for Mubi Monday is a new release from Mubi. It became available to stream this past Friday and was the Jury Prize winner at Cannes 2023. Let’s not waste any time and get right into…Fallen Leaves (2023).

Title: Fallen Leaves

Director: Aki Kaurismäki

Released: May 23, 2023 (Cannes Film Festival – France)

Runtime: 1 hour 21 minutes

Available to stream: Exclusively on Mubi

Ansa (Alma Pöysti) works in a grocery store where she spends her shifts stocking the shelves. Ansa and her coworkers are employed under a zero-hour contract. What is a zero-hour contract? Well, this means that her employer is not required to give her a minimum number of hours to work. Likewise, Ansa and her coworkers are not required to accept any work offered by their employer.

One night after her shift, Ansa is stopped by management and asked to empty her bag onto the table. In doing so, an item of food that was past its date tumbles out of her bag in front of management and security. Despite the fact that the store could no longer sell the item and would throw it out anyways, management decides to fire Ansa for stealing. In an act of solidarity, her two coworkers decide to quit on the spot.

Now desperate for work, Ansa fills an open position at a pub. Each Monday she’ll receive payment, in cash. Well, as her luck would have it, on just her second day there she sees her boss hauled away in handcuffs. Yet again, Ansa finds herself unemployed.

Meanwhile, Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) is working as a sandblaster and is also just going through the motions at a dead-end job. He turns to booze to help get himself through the day. In fact, Holappa’s biggest enemy happens to be himself and his dependency on alcohol.

Holappa bumps into Ansa just after she lost her job at the pub. The two had previously met at a karaoke bat and Holappa decides to seize the moment and ask Ansa if she’d like some coffee. After coffee, they decide to catch a movie at the local cinema. As they are parting ways and saying goodbye, Ansa gives Holappa her number and tells him to call her. Turns out that Holappa has just about as good of luck as Ansa, he loses the piece of paper with her number on it almost instantly.

Unfortunately for Holappa, this was just the beginning of yet another round of bad luck. After a workplace injury, Holappa fails a breathalyzer test and as a result loses his job. By losing his job, he also loses his housing which was provided by the company. Down on his luck and desperately wanting to see Ansa again, he begins to just hang around outside the cinema in hopes she’ll be there.

As fate would have it, one night they do happen to reunite in front of the cinema. She invites him over for dinner only to kick him out after she catches him sneaking drinks from a flask in his coat. Holappa then spends his nights sleeping on benches and days trying to find work. However, his dependency on alcohol continues to get in his way.

Will hitting rock bottom be enough for Holappa to turn things around?

Can two isolated and forgotten individuals maintain their connection that allows them to dream past the dreary day-to-day?

Prior to this, I had not seen anything by Aki Kaurismäki. I wasn’t aware of his style, didn’t know what to expect, and honestly, because of that, I believe that I enjoyed Fallen Leaves (2023) even more so. All that I knew going into this was that I had seen the trailer prior to its debut at Cannes and it had been on my watchlist ever since.

One of the things that stood out to me the most once the credits rolled was that there wasn’t anything necessarily sensational about Fallen Leaves (2023). There are no outlandish characters or convoluted storylines. Instead, what we get is a character study of two people just trying to get by.

Both Alma and Jussi give superb performances. Ansa and Holappa are easy to relate to in one way or another. Neither of them leads a glamourous life, but they do what it takes to get by. Ansa turns to music or the news to find solace, that is until the news of recent events between Ukraine and Russia becomes too much to bear. Meanwhile, Holappa turns to booze. He realizes that he drinks too much and even admits that his depression is driving him to drink.

Despite the majority of the scenes taking place at night, there was a certain boldness to all of the colors. The lighting, the editing, and said color schemes really make each scene pop and delivers one visual treat after another.

One thing is for sure, Fallen Leaves (2023) gets in and gets out. The runtime of only eighty-one minutes just flies by. When the credits roll, you don’t find yourself sitting and wishing for more. For what the story was, it had the perfect ending.

If you’ve yet to see Fallen Leaves (2023), here is your recommendation to do so as soon as possible.

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So, now that you’ve heard my thoughts, I want to hear yours.

Tell me your thoughts on Fallen Leaves (2023) in the comments below or by reaching out on social media!

As always, stay up to date on everything else I’m watching over on my Letterboxd.