Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses

Living in Mexico with a top-ten hit under their belts, the Leningrad Cowboys have fallen on hard times. When they head north to rejoin their manager (Kaurismäki mainstay Matti Pellonpää) for a gig in Coney Island, he has turned into a self-proclaimed prophet who wishes to lead them back to the promised land of Siberia. Like its predecessor, Leningrad Cowboys Go America, Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses is a road movie, the humorous hardships this time coming from the rocky terrain of the new Europe.

Finland
1994
94 minutes
Color
1.85:1
Finnish, English

Available In

Collector's Set

Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys

DVD Box Set

3 Discs

$31.46

Cast & Credits

Cast

Twist-Twist Erkinharju: The Leningrad Cowboys
Ben Granfelt
Sakke Järvenpää
Jore Marjaranta
Ekke Niiva
Lyle Närvänen
Pemo Ojala
Silu Seppälä
Mauri Sumén
Mato Valtonen
Matti Pellonpää: Vladimir/Moses
Karl Väänänen: Mute
André Wilms: Lazar/Johnson/Elijah

Credits

Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Assistant director: Erkki Astala
Screenplay: Aki Kaurismäki
Based on an original story by: Sakke Järvenpää
Based on an original story by: Aki Kaurismäki
Based on an original story by: Mato Valtonen
Cinematography: Timo Salminen
Art direction: Mark Lavis
Editing: Aki Kaurismäki
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.