Leningrad Cowboys Go America

A struggling Siberian rock band leaves the lonely tundra to tour the United States because, as they’re told, “they’ll buy anything there.” Aki Kaurismäki’s winningly aloof farce follows the musicians as they bravely make their way across the New World, carrying a bandmate (and some beer) in a coffin and sporting hairdos that resemble unicorn horns. Leningrad Cowboys Go America was such a sensation that it brought the fictional band a major real-life following.

Finland
1989
79 minutes
Color
1.85:1
Finnish, English

Available In

Collector's Set

Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys

DVD Box Set

3 Discs

$35.96

Cast & Credits

Cast

Sakke Järvenpää: The Leningrad Cowboys
Heikki Keskinen
Pimme Korhonen
Sakari Kuosmanen
Puka Oinonen
Silu Seppälä
Mauri Sumén
Mato Valtonen
Pekka Virtanen
Matti Pellonpää: Vladimir
Karl Väänänen: Igor
Nicky Tesco: Lost cousin
Jim Jarmusch: Car dealer

Credits

Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Assistant director: Pauli Pentti
Screenplay: Aki Kaurismäki
Screenplay: Sakke Järvenpää
Screenplay: Mato Valtonen
Cinematography: Timo Salminen
Art direction: Kari Lane
Art direction: Heikki Ukkonen
Editing: Raija Talvio
Music: Mauri Sumén

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Explore

Aki Kaurismäki

Writer, Director

Even if he weren’t the world’s most famous Finnish filmmaker, Aki Kaurismäki’s singular place in cinema would be ensured by his distinctive and effortless mix of scalpel-sharp comedy, pitch-dark (The Match Factory Girl) or slapstick (Leningrad Cowboys Go America), with warm humanism. He started working in movies as his older brother Mika’s codirector, then struck out on his own with an adaptation of Crime and Punishment (1983). With his Proletariat Trilogy—Shadows in Paradise (1986), Ariel (1988), and The Match Factory Girl (1990), which find humor or romance in even the most desperate situations—and his zany musical comedies starring the fictional band the Leningrad Cowboys, Kaurismäki became a beloved figure in international film circles. The sardonic inventiveness of the former and the unexpected hipster hilarity of the latter confirmed him as an uncommon master, and his influence has been felt in works by the likes of Jim Jarmusch and Wes Anderson. Kaurismäki has continued to delight audiences with such films as the Oscar-nominated The Man Without a Past (2003) and Le Havre (2011), which evince his social commitment as well as his fluency in visual storytelling.

Read Kaurismäki’s Top 10.