Tuhlaajapoika / The Prodigal Son (1992) dir. Veikko Aaltonen

Part of UNESCO’s National Cinematic Heritage, Tuhlaajapoika AKA Prodigal Son is the story of a petty crook who beats people up on order to make ends meet after getting out of jail. A sadomasochist psychiatrist hires him to perform his services on the psychiatrist. This begins a psychosexual trip that rattled Finland in the early 90s when the film came out. Produced by Aki Kaurismäki, the film is a brutal and unflinching look at violence and the education of sentiments. The screenplay of Prodigal Son is among the most talented to ever be filmed in Finnish cinema, but it is refined by Veikko Aaltonen’s talented directing. The film speaks of essentials regarding the psychological and moral development of man. It combines in astonishing fashion a sense of down-to-earth nature with psychoanalytical theory with neither side suffering. The film isn’t mere depiction of theory, and it’s overarching structure stays clean despite all the life that goes on underneath it. The trump card of Prodigal Son is that it has a little of everything but not too much of anything. It maintains a humorous tone until the end, and contais the tragedy of people operating near the prison system and the somewhat sad, somewhat scary, aspects of sexual perversions. When it gets going Prodigal Son is primarily a thriller, but [director Veikko Aaltonen doesn’t leave any moment to rely purely on the thrills, which might show the cracks within the film. The true fascination and excitement is always in it’s portrayal of characters and their human interactions.