Country: Finland
Review: “Naked Harbour” gathers a bunch of characters to depict several different stories set in Vuosaari, a neighborhood in the city of Helsinki. Aku Louhimies put grown-ups and kids to interact in distinct problematic situations. All depicted with gloominess, we have: a couple of junkies with debts and no food, a divorced mother struggling with cancer, a married man who can’t put his sexual life in order and finds a lover, a bullied boy and his mother, a father who is obsessed with losing weight and torments his son, a 16-year old girl who lives with her dad and doesn’t want to be ordinary, and finally an American guy who goes to Finland to give some lectures. The stories are about love and pursuit for recognition, but all of them include a prolonged heaviness and cruelty, just to bring some indulgence and self-pity in the end at the sound of Robbie Williams’ “Feel”. Joyful moments aren’t abundant in a depressing film that carries ‘I can cope with my life’ as purpose.
