The Cinematheque

Finland

Veteran Finnish director Klaus Härö, whose Golden Globe-nominated The Fencer screened as part of EUFF 2015, brings his elegant craftsmanship and classical sensibilities to bear on this bittersweet tale of an aging art dealer up for one last score. Elderly curmudgeon Olavi (Heikki Nousiainen) is an old-school Helsinki gallerist whose ramshackle shop risks obsolescence in an era of online sales and algorithms. When his expert eye spots what might be an overlooked obscurity by a Russian master at auction, he enlists the help of his estranged daughter and grandson to verify its authenticity — and rediscovers in their company the family he’s taken for granted. ​“A beautifully scaled and exquisitely honest tearjerker about the values we forget when we ignore the past — and what we lose when we become consumed by it” (Steve Gravestock, TIFF).