Zombie & the Ghost Train (1991) ( Zombie ja Kummitusjuna ) ( Zombie and the Ghost Train )

Zombie & the Ghost Train (1991) (DVD) (*)

$26.99

Original Title: Zombie ja Kummitusjuna
Alternate Title: Zombie and the Ghost Train
Screened, competed or awarded at:
San Sebastian International Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Danish ( Subtitles )
English ( Subtitles )
Finnish ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Swedish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
84 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 1991 and produced in:
Finland ( Scandinavia, Iceland )

Directed By:
Mika Kaurismäki

Written By:
Sakke Järvenpää
Mika Kaurismäki

Actors:
Silu Seppälä ..... Zombie
Marjo Leinonen ..... Marjo
Matti Pellonpää ..... Harri
Vieno Saaristo ..... Äiti
Juhani Niemelä ..... Isä
Sakke Järvenpää ..... Mulefukker
Mato Valtonen ..... Mulefukker
Mauri Sumén ..... Mulefukker
Jyri Närvänen ..... Mulefukker
Jarmo Haapanen ..... Mulefukker (as Jami Haapanen)
Jussi Rinne ..... Kummitusjuna
Matti Viholainen ..... Kummitusjuna (as Vinski Viholainen)
Roger Nieminen ..... Kummitusjuna
Marko Rauhala ..... Parturi
Kauko Laurikainen ..... Lääkäri

Synopsis:

The multi award-winning picture 'Zombie and the Ghost Train see Zombie (Silu Seppala), a twenty-something who does two things well; play bass guitar and drink. Returning to his native Finland after being called up to the army, Zombie lives a bleary eyed existence in an apartment near his parents house. His girlfriend Marjo (Marjo Leinonen) and friend Harri (Matti Pellonpaa) try to intervene to save him from his path of self-destruction, but Zombie may just be unsalvageable. Special features include the theatrical trailer, an interview with, and a biography of, the director, Mika Kaurismaki.

Antti "Zombie" Autiomaa does two things well: play the bass guitar and drink. After several months' sleeping on the streets of Istanbul, he returns to Helsinki where he's called into the army but discharged on mental health grounds after adding turpentine to the officers' soup. Zombie lives bleary-eyed in an apartment off his parents' house where his lonely, unemployed father suffers from heart disease. His girl-friend Marjo has taken up with a hairdresser but comes back to Zombie. His friend Harri hires him as a roadie for his band "Harry and the Mulefukkers" then gives him a chance as a bass player. He has his girl and he has a gig, but can Zombie put the bottle down?

In a Monty Python skit, Graham Chapman once donned the attire of a Swiss maiden and went about selling honey in Britain door-to-door. When asked by John Cleese whether his job wasn't a miserable, unprofitable one, Chapman answered "It is, but I'd do anything to stay out of Iceland." The country of Finland is similarly wintery and bleak, and the young man in this movie, aptly named Zombie, would like to do anything to get free of his life. Unfortunately, he hasn't sufficient zest for life even to pull off committing suicide properly. This movie was billed as a tragicomedy in Finland, but non-Finnish reviewers found it to be singularly unfunny (perhaps they never thought of the Python skit). Zombie is part of a rock n' roll group which is touring through the European continent, and he finds some surcease from the grayness of the Finnish winter with his road manager in what might seem (to the rest of us) to be a depressingly gray region of Turkey.

This product was added to our catalog on Friday 19 February, 2016.