The Match Factory Girl
TITLE
The Match Factory Girl
DIRECTOR
Aki Kaurismäki
COUNTRY
Finland, Sweden
YEAR
1990
DURATION
70′
GENRE
Comedy, Crime, Drama
The Match Factory Girl
Iris has a dead-end job in a match-factory, lives with her dour and forbidding parents, and her social life is a disaster. But when she is made pregnant after a one-night stand by a man who thought she was a prostitute, she decides that enough is enough and plans her revenge.
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY - Aki Kaurismäki
Aki Kaurismäki did a wide variety of jobs including postman, dish-washer and film critic, before forming a production and distribution company, Villealfa (in homage to Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965)) with his older brother Mika Kaurismäki, also a film-maker. Both Aki and Mika are prolific film-makers, and together have been responsible for one-fifth of the total output of the Finnish film industry since the early 1980s, though Aki's work has found more favour abroad. His films are very short (he says a film should never run longer than 90 minutes, and many of his films are nearer 70), eccentric parodies of various genres (road movies, film noir, rock musicals), populated by lugubrious hard-drinking Finns and set to eclectic soundtracks, typically based around '50s rock'n'roll. In the 1990s he has made films in Britain (I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)) and France (The Bohemian Life (1992)).
- Director Aki Kaurismäki
- Screenplay Aki Kaurismäki
- Cinematography Timo Salminen
- Editing Aki Kaurismäki
- Cast Kati Outinen, Elina Salo, Esko Nikkari, Vesa Vierikko
- Producer/s Aki Kaurismäki, Klas Olofsson
- Production Company Villealfa Filmproductions, Svenska Filminstitutet
- Distributor/s The Match Factory, Alcine Terran
- Project Title The Match Factory Girl
- Project Type Comedy, Crime, Drama
- Completion Date November 6, 1992
- Country of originFinland, Sweden
- Country of filming Finland
- Language Finnish
- First-time Filmmaker No
- Student Project No
Aki Kaurismäki
Aki Kaurismäki did a wide variety of jobs including postman, dish-washer and film critic, before forming a production and distribution company, Villealfa (in homage to Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965)) with his older brother Mika Kaurismäki, also a film-maker. Both Aki and Mika are prolific film-makers, and together have been responsible for one-fifth of the total output of the Finnish film industry since the early 1980s, though Aki's work has found more favour abroad. His films are very short (he says a film should never run longer than 90 minutes, and many of his films are nearer 70), eccentric parodies of various genres (road movies, film noir, rock musicals), populated by lugubrious hard-drinking Finns and set to eclectic soundtracks, typically based around '50s rock'n'roll. In the 1990s he has made films in Britain (I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)) and France (The Bohemian Life (1992)).
Berlin International Film Festival
Interfilm Award, OCIC Award - Honorable Mention, 1990
European Film Awards
Nominee for European Film of the Year, 1990
Jussi Awards
Best Leading Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Direction, 1990
Tirana International Film Festival
Special Screening, 2022
