Kaija Pakarinen

Acting

Kaija Pakarinen

Born 1954-01-07 · Rääkkylä, Finland

Acting credits

The Man Without a Past poster
7.4

Arriving in Helsinki, a nameless man is beaten within an inch of his life by thugs, miraculously recovering only to find that he has completely lost his memory. Back on the streets, he attempts to begin again from zero, befriending a moody dog and becoming besotted with a Salvation Army volunteer.

The Man Without a Past

2002

The Other Side of Hope poster
7.0

A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.

The Other Side of Hope

2017

The Mine poster
6.8

A young and ambitious civil servant Jussi finds himself being in charge of the environmental permit of a huge nickel and uranium mine in Northern Finland. The Talvivaara mine, led by a charismatic globe trotting visioner Pekka Perä is introducing an entirely new method of collecting minerals whilst creating jobs in one of the poorest areas in Scandinavia. Jussi slowly discovers that he has been led astray by several people and that the new method has serious downsides he did not forsee. The mine is causing environmental hazards that are being hushed down. A new application for another permit is brough to his table by the same mine. Along with the application comes an interesting job offer and a chance of a new beginning. Jussi has to decide whether he will play along and if so, with whom.

The Mine

2016

Void poster
6.3

Eero’s career as an author is spiraling down: he just can’t get started with his new novel. The ambitious actor Pihla is about to get her international break. Neither of them is willing to sacrifice their career even though their relationship is doing worse than ever. Void is a comedy-drama about the price of success and the agony of failure, and about situations where your partner just doesn’t get it.

Void

2018

Letters to Father Jacob poster
7.2

With few options, newly pardoned convict Leila agrees to work as an assistant to a blind pastor. Father Jacob spends his days answering the letters of the needy, which Leila finds pointless. But when the letters stop, the pastor is devastated and Leila finds herself cast in a new role.

Letters to Father Jacob

2009

Drifting Clouds poster
7.6

The ever-poker-faced Ilona loses her job as a restaurant hostess, as her tram driver husband, Lauri, also finds himself out of work. Together they must hit the streets of Helsinki, facing up to hardship and humiliation in their quest for survival, guided through the gloom by a ray of hope.

Drifting Clouds

1996

Lumikit poster
7.0

A hospital room drama in which women talk about love, children, relationships with men, and life in general. Stories of survival are seasoned with both tears and laughter.

Lumikit

1986

Lahja poster
5.1

A middle-aged woman wants a child and starts to look for a suitable father when she doesn't succeed in the plan with her husband.

Lahja

1997

Kiss Me in the Rain poster
5.0

Middle-aged Maire's husband spends most of his time abroad on business. Alone in their large house, Maire fills her empty life by absorbing other people's tragedies from tabloid newspapers. Obsessed by the story about a young single mother whose husband was killed and the killer got away with it, she befriends the young widow who would rather forget the whole event and go on with her life.

Kiss Me in the Rain

1999

The Wedding Waltz poster
6.7

Viltteri, a balding guy in his thirties living in rural northern Finland, is hopelessly clueless about his new role as a married man and the father of a newborn son. A perfect escape from family responsibilities is having to get his old Hillman Minx repaired and inspected for road-worthiness, with a little help from an eccentric bunch of friends who never seem to have grown up either.

The Wedding Waltz

1988

Martinin rikos poster
10.0

A story about the conflicting emotions of love and hate, duty and selfishness in the human mind.

Martinin rikos

1980

Four Little Adults poster
5.9

The life of Juulia, a Finnish parliamentarian, is suddenly turned upside down by the discovery of the betrayal by her husband Matias, a Protestant pastor, with the young Enni. After an initial moment of anger and desperation, Juulia realizes that she cannot leave him and she understands that sometimes it is possible to sacrifice a part of one's individual happiness for the good of the people you love. For this reason she suggests to Matias that they open their relationship, a choice that will lead her to meet Miska, a young non-binary, who is also her girlfriend, and to experiment with polyamory naturally and spontaneously, with all the consequences of the case, positive and negative.

Four Little Adults

2023

Restless poster
5.1

Ari, a paramedic, is a chronic womanizer; he makes it a point of pride to never sleep with the same woman twice, and his nights are a long series of brazen one-night stands. But when Ari meets Tiina, something unexpected happens – he falls in love.

Restless

2000

Lahjat esiin! poster
NR

11-year-old Kiti does something forbidden: she secretly opens her Christmas present ahead of time. The package has clearly been switched, and Kiti begins to investigate the matter. Before Christmas Eve comes to an end, the culprit is revealed. Who is the thief, and what is the reason for the theft?

Lahjat esiin!

2022

Dirty Hands poster
5.5

A political drama set in the fictional country of Illyria between 1943 and 1945, the story is about the assassination of a leading politician. The country, an ally of Nazi Germany, is on the verge of being annexed to the Eastern Bloc. Kaurismäki's TV adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre's play Les Mains Sales (Dirty Hands) tells the story of Hugo (Matti Pellonpää) who has just been released from prison. Before going to prison, he has worked as a journalist at his party's newspaper. This timid journalist, who uses the pseudonym Raskolnikov, wants to advance in his career and gets his chance when Hoederer (Sulevi Peltola), the leader of the party, has to be eliminated.

Dirty Hands

2015

Joensuun Elli poster
6.0

The film shows how Midsummer was celebrated in North Karelia in 1973.

Joensuun Elli

2004

Nuoruustango poster
NR

Is love eternal? Or ideology? When erstwhile communists meet at a food course the result is quite the concoction.

Nuoruustango

2017

Love and Fury poster
6.0

In 1980s Helsinki, a city about to burst with young energy and rebellion, two young writers determined to conquer the world fall madly in love. For Inka, the love affair puts everything in motion: she finds her own voice, publishes her first novel, and becomes a sensation. The intensity of their relationship has a different affect on Juhana, who starts to lose his grip on writing and, finally, life. At the height of the love affair Inka starts to suspect that their mad love might actually be real madness.

Love and Fury

2016

No artwork available
7.7

A group of Finns have won a cruise and this is how they behave on it.

Irti Maasta

1989

Harvest poster
NR

For the longest time, Anja Huovinen has been putting up with her husband’s (Juuso Hirvikangas) drinking and slackness. But she has reached the limit. Elonkorjuu is a tragicomedy about what happens when a person stops being useful to anyone. The story is black and warm as freshly brewed Finnish coffee.

Harvest

2006

Trench Road poster
5.7

After his wife leaves him, a man becomes obsessed getting his family back together by buying an old house.

Trench Road

2004

Summer Is Crazy poster
5.3

After the bankruptcy of their fine dining restaurant, the Eerolas are stuck in the seaside village of Nauvo with no clear plan for the future. In the shadow of the father’s depression both the mother and the teenage daughter rebel against the stagnant life, each in their own way. In the magical light of the midnight sun, new loves begin while others come to an end.

Summer Is Crazy

2025

Yötyö poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Yötyö

1988

Raspberry Boat Refugee poster
5.0

Mikko Virtanen feels like a Swedish soul trapped in a Finnish body. Full of disgust for everything Finnish, he sees Sweden as heaven. Upon meeting a suicidal Swedish psychologist Mikael Anderson, he seizes an opportunity for an identity switch. Raspberry Boat Refugee is a comedy about cultural differences in the Nordic countries, their nationalism and, not least, prejudices about our neighbours. It also proves how futile it is to try to escape oneself.

Raspberry Boat Refugee

2014