Kaurismäki usually champions the outcasts of society and here it's no different. Of course, his past does catch up with him, but it only works to point out what's really important in his future life. Without knowing a single person (and without a single person knowing him), he must try to survive, but he soon acquires a melancholy dog named Hannibal and falls in love with Irma, a lonely salvation army soup kitchen volunteer. Now a penniless amnesiac, he has to build his life from scratch. In the hospital, he is pronounced dead by the doctors, but by some miracle he springs back to life but with no memory whatsoever of his past or his identity. After M, as he is referred to for the rest of the film, dozes off on a park bench, he is awoken by a trio of thugs who brutally beat him up, steal his money and toss his wallet and identity papers into the trash bin. This second installment in Aki Kaurismaki's projected "Finland Trilogy" is a heart-warming fable about a man (Markku Peltola) who loses everything, including his identity. MAN WITHOUT A PAST, THE (Aki Kaurismäki - Finland/France/Germany 2002).
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