''Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana'' (), also translated as ''Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana'', is a 1994 Finnish/

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

film directed, produced and co-written by

Aki Kaurismäki Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (; born 4 April 1957) is a Finnish film director and screenwriter. He is best known for the award-winning '' Drifting Clouds'' (1996), '' The Man Without a Past'' (2002), ''Le Havre'' (2011), '' The Other Side of Hope'' (201 ...

. The film tells the story of two shy and unaccomplished middle-aged men who run away from their mothers' homes and drive aimlessly on the back roads of Finland.

Plot

Valto ( Mato Valtonen) lives with his mother, who runs a clothing business. Valto is seen sewing clothes for his mother at the beginning of the film. When he discovers the coffee has run out, and his mother refuses to make him a new one straight away, he locks her in a cupboard, steals her money and goes out. Valto finds Reino ( Matti Pellonpää), who has been fixing Valto's car. They then go on a road trip with no apparent destination. With music coming out of a in-car vinyl player of Valto's car and Reino's story about how he got into some legal trouble after he punched someone, the two seemingly enjoy the road trip. This is a typical Kaurismäki's ordinary-scene-made-interesting moment. When they make a stop at a bar, they meet Tatiana ( Kati Outinen) from

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

and Klavdia ( Kirsi Tykkyläinen) from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Tatiana and Klavdia ask Valto and Reino to drive them to a harbour. Since Valto and Reino's road trip does not have a clear destination at the first place, Valto and Reino agree to take Tatiana and Klavdia. Throughout the journey, Valto has been drinking coffee and Reino drinking vodka. Although Reino is reserved in his nature, he sits down next to Tatiana during one of the stops of the journey. Tatiana relaxes her head on Reino's shoulder. The film suggests the two have fallen in love at this point. At the end of the film, Reino and Tatiana remain in love with each other and live together in

whereas Valto returns home, releases his mother out of the cupboard and resumes sewing clothes.

Cast

Reception

'' Time Out'' called the film a "beautifully economic anti-romantic road comedy... Marvellously observed and understated".

References

External links

* *
''Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana''
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

* * * Films directed by Aki Kaurismäki 1990s Finnish-language films 1994 films Finnish black-and-white films 1990s Finnish films {{Finland-film-stub