Tuntematon mestari / One Last Deal

Heikki Nousiainen as the veteran art dealer.

FI 2019. PC: Making Movies Oy. P: Kai Nordberg, Kaarle Aho.
    D: Klaus Härö. SC: Anna Heinämaa. DP: Tuomo Hutri. AD: Kaisa Mäkinen. Cost: Sari Suominen. Makeup: Mari Vaalasranta. M: Matti Bye. S: Kirka Sainio. ED: Benjamin Mercer.
    C: Heikki Nousiainen (Olavi), Pirjo Lonka (Lea), Amos Brotherus (Otto), Stefan Sauk (Albert Johnson), Pertti Sveholm (Patu), Jakob Öhrman (Dick Sundell).
    Loc: Helsinki (largely around Ekbergs Café, Bulevarden 9).
    95 min
    In Finnish and some Swedish.
    Premiere: 4 Jan 2019 - distributor: Oy Nordisk Film Ab.
    Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF): 7 Sep 2019.
    Vimeo link viewed for Jussi Awards, on a 4K tv screen at home, 10 March 2020.

Steve Gravestock (TIFF Toronto International Film Festival, 2019): "An aging art dealer — left behind by the corporatization of his industry and estranged from his family — hopes an undervalued icon will turn his fortunes around, in the latest from veteran Finnish director Klaus Härö."

"Veteran Finnish filmmaker Klaus Härö (Mother of Mine) returns to the Festival with One Last Deal, about an aging art dealer whose last shot at the big time coincides with his last chance to reconnect with his estranged daughter and grandson."

"An expert at complicated emotional dilemmas, Härö specializes in contradictory characters whose pride and obsessions battle with their better angels. But few of Härö’s creations are as divided as Olavi (Heikki Nousiainen, in a great hangdog performance), a work-obsessed dealer left behind by an industry favouring larger corporate conglomerates. There, algorithms have replaced instinct and knowledge about art history, leading the dealers near his dilapidated, overcrowded shop to miss what may be an obscure icon from a major Russian painter."

"Getting the icon will require a lot of research and a little help, which he unexpectedly receives from his grandson, Otto. As Olavi schools the kid in how to navigate a cutthroat industry and research things you just can’t find via Google, he reconnects with his daughter, Lea, and rediscovers the family he’s missed. The big question, however, is whether he’ll sacrifice everything for that one last score."

"Shot using a muted colour scheme, reflecting the look of Olavi’s rundown shop and the masterpieces he trades in, One Last Deal is a beautifully scaled and exquisitely honest tearjerker about the values we forget when we ignore the past — and what we lose when we become consumed by it." Steve Gravestock (TIFF Toronto International Film Festival, 2019)

AA: I saw this impressive film for the first time only now. It premiered last year just when we were at our busiest moving out of Cinema Orion and launching Kino Regina.

Good things are worth waiting for. Klaus Härö knows to value a strong script, and this film is based on another excellent screenplay from Anna Heinämaa, sculptor, author and screenwriter. It is a well made play, obeying the classical storytelling virtues. It gives a lot to think about family affairs and the art market.

With the cinematographer Tuomo Hutri the director brings to the movie a luminous visual approach. The lighting registers eloquently seasons of the year and times of the day from morning till night. This sense emphasizes major themes of the movie. The protagonist's time is running out, and "the wind passes over him, and he is gone" (Psalm 103).

All his life Olavi has neglected his daughter Lea who has had a hard time raising her son Otto. The drive of the movie is comparable with the "last big caper" subgenre of the gangster film. The build-up of suspense is similar, and even the moral quicksand is comparable. The deepest suspense stems from the ethical dilemma.

One Last Deal is also a dramatization of the madness of the art market. An unsigned masterpiece is worth almost nothing. A signature would increase the market value tenfold. The answer to the mystery of the missing signature gives also something to think about art and spirituality.

There is a touch of melodrama in the characterization of the art brokers. It makes the drama stronger but may date this beautiful film a little bit.

The performances are eloquent, and Heikki Nousiainen is again at his best in a movie by Klaus Härö who cast the veteran actor in a career-changing role in Letters to Father Jacob.