Mika Kaurismäki’s films challenge many boundaries – national societies, genre formations, art/popular culture, fiction/documentary, humanity/nature and problematic distinctions between different zones of development. Synthesizing concepts from a range of thematic frameworks – e.g. auteurism, eco-philosophy, genre, cartography, cineaste networks, global reception, distribution and exhibition practices, and the potential of postnationalism – this book provides an interdisciplinary reading of Kaurismäki’s cinema. The notion of 'transvergence' – thinking in heterogeneous and polyphonal terms – emerges as an analytical method for exploring the power of these films. Through this method, the book encourages a rethinking of transnational cinema studies in relation to many oft-debated notions such as Finnish culture, European identity, cosmopolitanism and globalization.

A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via the OAPEN Library platform: The Cinema of Mika Kaurismaki. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License and is part of Knowledge Unlatched.