Shortly after winning the FIPRESCI Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki‘s latest effort, the bittersweet comedy Le Havre was chosen as Finland’s submission for the Academy Awards Best Foreign-Language Film category. Days later, I was lucky enough to catch this socially conscious comedy, which centers on an aged Bohemian/shoe-shiner who takes in a teen-aged African refugee, at NYFF, and found it to be thought-provoking and delightful. (Read my full review here.) So, I’m personally pleased to hear that Kaurismäki intends for the film to be the first in his in-development ‘Harbor Town Trilogy.’
While his first Harbor Town feature took place in a French port, Kaurismäki, who has a history of shooting roundabouts Helsinki, Finland, told Finnish film mag Filmihullu (via Helsingin Sanomat, via The Playlist) that the second entry would be shot in Spain with the final installment set in Germany. But beyond this, the internationally acclaimed auteur gave little details, save for divulging to Indiewire that the next film is called The Barber of Vigo and will be set in the harbor town of Galicia, Spain. From the title, one can expect that like Le Havre, the feature will focus on a blue-collar craftsman, and one can hope like its sister flick, The Barber of Vigo will explore social issues and anxieties with a tender yet cheeky tenor.
But when can we expect The Barber if Vigo? The 54-year-old director seems to shrug, “I’ll make another in five years and a third in 10 years so I can retire.” Kaurismäki admits that with age comes an inevitable slowdown in output, and lessened drive, allowing, “I’m so bloody lazy that I have to tell everybody I make trilogies. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t do anything but play cards. But the kind of plan I have will take 10 years…It’s quite different from when I was younger and the fastest filmmaker in the world…[Nowadays] I have no ambition to rush.”
Still, if his next ventures are as enchanting as Le Havre, they’ll be worth the wait.
What do you think the plot of The Barber of Vigo may be? In which German Harbor Town do you think his third film will be set?