The Match Factory Girl

Indifferent to everything and sad, Iris works in a burner factory. There, she oversees that the machines are sticking the labels correctly. She does the work in silence, methodically precisely: she removes the boxes with the double label, wets the incompletely adhered ones, folds the protruding edges. On the way home by bus, she reads insignificant novels. At home, she is also single - her mother and stepfather are constantly watching TV, and when they sit down at the dinner table, no one asks how her day went. After finishing her homework, Iris dresses in the most beautiful clothes and takes to the local dances. It’s like an interior detail sits among all the women who are constantly invited to dance and spends time sipping drinks and listening to sensual love songs. Iris lives like this until one day, in the mood, she pays her salary for a red dress ...

“One spring day, I was wandering around the city aimlessly, talking a lot and turning my head foolishly in every way. The whole other day, I lay quietly in bed and hated myself badly. In revenge for myself, I decided to make a film before which Robert Bresson would look like an epic action film director. I later called that pile of shit "Girl from the Match Factory" because the name is long enough to be easily forgotten, "said director Aki Kaurismäki about the film.