Tuhlaajapoika

Esa is a young man who knows how to deal with the blows of life. He has recently left prison, but he continues to commit crimes. This time he gets paid to assault people. When one of the customers wants to use his services for his own account, Esa enters a nightmare of violence and dominance. When he meets Laura, Esa decides to take control over his own life. However, he doesn't realize how difficult it is to escape one's past.

COMMENTARY
The Prodigal Son is a myth about injustice. Infidelity is rewarded by love, fidelity is paid by invisibility. A psychological model of explanation would tell you that it is only when you are in danger of losing something that you are able to formulate your desires, give in to them, speak their language.
The most modern voices of urbanity talk about this in The Prodigal Son, a black Finnish autumn drama which more than anything focuses on the male fear of castration. Moreover with a song that praises the theft of style with seductive arrogance. Cut, a nicked device, did you see that in the gaze, cut, now we'll make the genres merge, cut.
The lost son is advised by a friend on how to get a life: ''Remember one of those signs that say Beware of the Dog. Put one up where you live. Esa lives here.'' The sign is up. As a punishment to the dog and a warning to others, the man with the illiterate conscience needs blatant symbols and large
visible signs.
So far The Prodigal Son has been a gloomy and sharp movie, but now darkness descends over the streets of Helsinki and prevents the viewer from seeing clearly. Esa, who has pulped people's faces for a while for a living (so they are able to press charges against the police, for example) is called upon by a rich and excentric psychiatrist who wants to be beaten and degraded, and thereafter accepted by his reluctant tormentor. A sophisticated, hyper-civilized attitude clashes with naivety. ''All violence is sexual'', says the former. ''Not mine'', is the later one's answer.
But it is no good. The half-hearted sadist has to be punished for his half-heartedness. He who doesn't want to put his mark on the world is condemned to leave it on the body and ''he learns a new language''. The language is threatening, a mix between Freud and Bataille. The history of the eye
is only a twinkle.
Ulrika Milles

Medverkande
Hannu Kivioja, Esko Salminen: Producent
Aki Kaurismäki: Manus
liro Kuttner: Foto
Timo Salminen: Musik
Mauri Sumen: Talat språk
Finnish