Aki Kaurismäki

Leningrad Cowboys Go America

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.

Film Info

  • Finland
  • 1989
  • 79 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.85:1
  • Finnish, English

Available In

Collector's Set

Eclipse Series 29: Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys

Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys

DVD Box Set

3 Discs

$35.96

Leningrad Cowboys Go America
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

Current

Eclipse Series 29: Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys
Eclipse Series 29: Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys
Hair, There, and Everywhere Are the Leningrad Cowboys for real? With pointy pompadours reaching to impossible heights above their expressionless faces and needlelike winklepicker shoes that could have been torn from the feet of oversize elves, they m…

By Michael Koresky

Janus Films Acquires Kaurismäki’s Latest
Janus Films Acquires Kaurismäki’s Latest
We’re pleased to announce that Janus Films has picked up the North American rights to Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre, which, as you may have heard, premiered to much acclaim in May at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI (the…

Explore

Aki Kaurismäki

Writer, Director

Aki Kaurismäki

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.