Any film that features in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is guaranteed to be one that I will eventually watch, and this is one of the titles that was listed and I got my hands on. Basically mine worker Taisto Kasurinen (Turo Pajala) has left his job, and afterwards his father commits suicide by shooting himself in a café toilet. He picks up his convertible car and goes to the bank to take out everything he has, 8,000 marks, but his money is stolen by some muggers who beat him outside a burger bar. With no money Taisto goes to the dock to try and get a day's paid work, he does do the job and get paid, but he cannot get a permanent position, meaning that he has to go to a place and pay for a bed. Next day he is circling jobs listed in the newspaper, but instead of going to look for work we next see him boozing with some mean, drunk and stealing a portrait from a building, and renting a bed again. Next day he sees a woman giving him a car ticket, and to let him off she suggests Taisto take her to dinner, and after letting him stay the night with her it is in bed that she introduces herself as Irmeli Pihlaja (Susanna Haavisto). Next morning is when he meets her son that she mentioned to him, they have breakfast, and he goes to look for work again, including in factories, but without success he takes the woman and her son to the beach. Taisto tries to get work on the docks again, but he is not picked out, so he takes the drastic decision to sell off car, and the only amount he can get is 6,5000 marks. In a shopping centre he recognises one of the men who stole his wallet, and when the guy pulls out a knife trying to kill him, but when he is killed by Taitso he is framed and mistaken as a killer himself. He is sentenced to prison, sharing a cell with Mikkonen (Matti Pellonpää), and in his time he works the machines, and he does get visited by Irmeli and her son, there he proposes marriage. In their cell Taitso and Mikkonen talk about wanting to escape and go on a ship somewhere with each other, but surprisingly Taitso has a violent tantrum with the guards and is put in solitary. Irmeli gives him when he is out of solitary a cream cake and present, a book, but he knows it is not his birthday, and inside the book is a chisel. With this chisel Taitso files through his metal bed post to use as a weapon, and Mikkonen turns on the radio loud they get the attention of the guard, knock him out, take his key, and they both go for the nearest door and escape to freedom, hopping over fences, avoiding the guard dogs and swimming the water. After getting two suits smashing the window of a store they go to get Taitso's car back, and he and Irmeli get married with Mikkonen as witness, and back at the house the two fugitives narrowly miss the police catching them when they jump out the window. Wanting to escape to another destination they go to see gangsters for travel arrangements on a ship and two new passports, and to pay the 4,000 marks they need to rob a bank. The head gangster is paid, but, after getting the passports and confirmation of travel, Mikkonen tries to steal the money back, but they turn on him, and they are only stopped when Taitso comes in to find his friend shot, and he shoots the two crime lords dead. Mikkonen near death tells his friend to head for the ship, called Ariel, and he dies in the car from his fatal injuries, he is buried by his friend and Irmeli in the woods. In the end Taitso, Irmeli and her son manage to reach the dock where the ship Ariel is sailing away, they pay the man waiting for them, and they get on the ship heading for Mexico. Also starring Eetu Hilkamo as Riku, Erkki Pajala as Miner Kaivosmies and Matti Jaaranen as Mugger Pahoinpitelijä. The cast all do their parts fine, it is a near road movie theme in terms of that the characters do not stop somewhere for long, there are certainly some interesting moments with the prison and gangster scenes, and even though it is only an hour and seven minutes, that is long enough to be a watchable comedy drama. Very good!