Drifting Clouds

The first installment in Kaurismäki’s Looser Trilogy, Drifting Clouds tells the sad story of Ilona and Lauri, a married couple, caught between the grinding wheels of capitalism. Tram driver Lauri loses his job because nowadays most people drive cars, while Ilona is fired from the restaurant where she has been working as head waitress for years when the restaurant is bought up by a chain. In Drifting Clouds the theme often encountered in Kaurismäki films that "the personal is political" is connected with the longing for companionship and the resentment toward the modern city with its cold and functional buildings that breeds consumption.