Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses

 Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses 1994

• Director: Ari Kaurismäki
• Seen by this director: LeHavre, Mannen utan minne (Mies vailla meeneisyyttä) Moln på drift (Kauas pilvet karkaavat), Leningrad Cowboys Go America, Hamlet Goes Business (Liikemaailmassa)
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: The Leningrad Cowboys, Matti Pellonpää, Kari Vääninän, André Wilms
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Matti Pellonpää – Night on Earth, Leningrad Cowboys Go America, Hamlet Goes Business
• Kari Vääninän – Moln på drift, Night on Earth, Leningrad Cowboys Go America
• André Wilms – Le Havre
• Why? It’s the Leningrad Cowboys.
• Seen: 28 March 2021.      

       No question about it, the Leningrad Cowboys are one of the most bizarre rock bands in the world. The intro of the film even presents them as the worst. That might well be but they have been offered a gig on Coney Island, so they leave their precarious exile in Mexico and off they go.

       If you have never seen the Leningrad Cowboys, do please Google them. Especially their phenomenal concert in Helsinki with the Red Army Choir. It’s brilliant.

       In Coney Island they discover that they have been lured there by their former, presumed dead, manager Vladimir (Pekkonpää), who has been reborn to become Moses. He demands absolute obedience as he leads them back to the Promised Land, i.e. their home village in Siberia.

       You don’t need to know anymore of this ridiculous story.

       Only a Finn could produce such an absurd, wildly creative and essentially meaningless (or is it?) film as this, and who better than Kaurismäki? Like other cult films this could be regarded as utter rubbish, or a masterpiece. Or something.

       I’ll go for the ‘or something.’      

4* of 5