Frozen City (2006)

• 72%
• 2006
• Drama
• Aku Louhimies
• Janne Virtanen
• Susanna Anteroinen
• Aada Hämes

Veli-Matti is a taxi driver whose violent temper gets him into a lot of trouble. He seems to be the perfect nice guy with his children, although his wife vanished when their youngest was a baby. When she returns after an unexplained two-month absence, he realizes that they cannot go on as if nothing happened; he suggests that he move out and they both move on with their lives. This puts the loving father of three in a weaker position where the kids are concerned: he fights for a 50-50 settlement, but his wife wants a settlement that will suit her better, even if she was the one who abandoned the family for two months. He does what he can for his children despite a chronic lack of time and resources, and his actions play like a crash-course in low-budget single parenting: he makes bread buns with his kids, reads to them, takes them on adventures in his dark, unfurnished new flat, cooking pancakes in a pan on a fire inside a pot. When the first decoration arrives in the form of a set of--admittedly hideous--curtains, it is the beginning of the end, as fate starts to conspire against him. He is declared guilty of a crime he cannot remember committing and incarcerated, and his children's mother gets sole custody.