It arrives in Italian cinemas from 4th July with I Wonder Pictures Death is a problem of the livingdirected by the award-winning Finnish director Teemu Nikki (Euthanizer, The blind man who didn’t want to see Titanic).
Teemu Nikki returns to the big screen with a brilliant comedy tinged with black humor that stages the consequences of gambling addiction and the events of an unlikely and disjointed couple of social outcasts in a cynical and cruel Finland.
The protagonists are Risto (Pekka Strang) and Arto (Jari Virman), neighbors who couldn’t be more different: the first is an undertaker addicted to gambling, in marital crisis, with an alcoholic mother-in-law and a son for whom he is rarely present; the second is a gentle educator in a nursery school, he lives with the researcher Saija and the two have been trying to expand their family for some time, but the expected pregnancy is slow in arriving. The wheel turns for both of them in the most unexpected way when Risto finds himself crushed by debt and Arto is diagnosed with a more unique than rare condition: he was born with 85% less brain than average. From neighbors, Risto and Arto, the man without a heart and the man without a brain, thus become a strange couple of undertakers who must carry out the dirty work for a very particular illegal activity.
Presented within the Progressive Cinema Competition of the Rome Film Festival 2023, Death is a problem of the living is an original and moving black comedy about friendship and forgiveness, about the absurdities of life and how to deal with them day after day. To accompany the brilliant screenplay, the composer’s original music Marco Biscarini (I wanted to hide, Lubo, One day you have to go) on his first collaboration with director Teemu Nikki.
“My films are born in a rather unconventional way. Usually, something starts bothering me and the next thing you know we’re already making a movie about it. The idea was born when I read three interesting articles. One of these was about a gambler, another about a brainless man, and the third about a hearse driver. The three things mixed in my mind and slowly gave birth to a story of friendship between a man without a heart and a man without a brain. […] I’ve found that laughter is my shield against all evil, perhaps that’s why I think the best approach to dark themes in cinema is the comedic tone. As long as there is laughter, there is life. This film is also significant because it was the last collaboration between me and the director of photography Jyrki Arnikari, who shot my first films and supported me until the end. I hope that Death is a problem of the living can give viewers an experience that makes them laugh, maybe cry, and reminds them to love life” – says Teemu Nikki.
Death is a problem of the living will be in Italian cinemas from 4th of July distributed by I Wonder Pictures. The film is produced by Jani Pösö for It’s Alive Films and Andrea Romeo for The Culture Business and is the first Italian-Finnish co-production between the two companies.
