Robert Mitchum est mort

Franky Pastor is an unsuccessful actor in Paris. The only part he can act well is that of the dying man. Precisely this talent makes his penniless agent Arséne, who has his office located in the public laundry, believe in his protégé’s international breakthrough. When Arsené learns that the director Sarrineff, whom Franky worships, intends to make a new film and still is looking for actors, they travel to a film festival in the Arctic Circle to meet him there. Together with Franky, a stolen car, a suitcase with mysterious contents and a weapon, which is to lend a little more weight to certain instructions, Arséne departs for the journey. This is how a bizarre road movie across half of Europe and film history begins.

Be it film noir, western or classic zombie movie, American genre cinema becomes the place of escape and promises of new beginnings for these two protagonists from the heartland of auteurs’ films. Two losers are at the steering wheel there, up to their neck in trouble, trying with their last ounce of strength to change the course of their mediocre life. Owing to the Finnish cameraman Timo Salminen, each frame contains faint echoes of laconic taciturnity in the style of Kaurismäki, mingled with the certainty that failure is a part of life. Robert Mitchum is dead. Long live the new heroes!