Honey Baby

Colour, 35 mm
Finland, Germany, Latvia, Russia, 2004, 103 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

This love story, inspired by the ancient Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, takes place during a magical adventure in the Baltics. Tom is an American musician who is searching for inspiration, and before returning home he decides to tour the Baltics. A young Russian woman named Natasha flees from the man she was to marry, German businessman Karl. The protagonists´ paths cross in Kaliningrad, but, at first seemingly carefree, the couple finally have to take flight. Perhaps Tom and Natasha aren´t looking for love which would complicate their lives but, like Orpheus and Eurydice, they cannot escape their fate. At a fair between Riga and St Petersburg, they find that they love one another, which brings happiness, new creative energy, but also pain. Yet they can´t hide from the past forever, and Tom, in order to be with his beloved, has to set off for the ends of the earth, to Murmansk, to the underworld...

About the director

Mika Kaurismäki  (b. 1955, Ortimattila, Finland) is a director, writer and producer. He graduated in film in Munich and his debut effort, The Liar (Valehtelija, 1981), starring his younger brother Aki, created a sensation. It not only set off both brothers´ successful directing careers, but also a new era in the Finnish film industry. Mika and Aki and a group of friends founded Villealfa Filmproductions, which made many noteworthy low- or no-budget films. In the nineties he began working through his own company, Marianna Films, where his first independent project was Zombie and the Ghost Train (1991). Since 1989 his second home has been Rio de Janeiro. With Samuel Fuller and Jim Jarmusch he went to the jungle to shoot the feature-length docudrama Tigrero - A Film That Was Never Made, which took the 1994 International Critics´ Prize at Berlin. Selected filmography: Amazon (1990), The Last Border (1993), Condition Red (1996), L.A. Without a Map (1998), Highway Society (2000), Moro No Brasil (2002). At present he is working on the documentary Sarau.