The Politics of National Identity in Aki Kaurismäki’s The Leningrad Cowboys Films

Citation

Kaapa P (2007) The Politics of National Identity in Aki Kaurismäki’s The Leningrad Cowboys Films. Wider Screen, 2007 (2). http://www.widerscreen.fi/2007/2/politics_of_national_identity.htm

Abstract
First paragraph: Aki Kaurismäki's Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989), was the first of several films following The Leningrad Cowboys, a band performing an eclectic fusion of rock and folk music. This article will focus on the three feature-length films by Aki Kaurismäki, Leningrad Cowboys Go America, Total Balalaika Show (1994) and Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (1994). The Leningrad Cowboys films chronicle a state where changes in the cultural contexts of the protagonists necessitate adaptation and attempts at integration. It is these multi-cultural identity negotiations that form the analytical core of this article. This trilogy will be read against the metamorphosis of Finnish identity in the light of the fall of the Soviet Union and Finland's subsequent EU accession, an approach designed to tease out the sometimes extremely antagonistic, sometimes highly sarcastic political content of this trilogy.

Journal
Wider Screen: Volume 2007, Issue 2