Kari Väänänen

Actor

September 17, 1953 (72 years)

Ivalo, Finland

Biography

Kari Kyösti Väänänen (born 17 September 1953 in Ivalo) is a Finnish actor and director. Domestically he is a member of the Ryhmäteatteri group of actors. He was introduced to international audiences by Aki Kaurismäki; and belongs to the list of his "trusted" stable of actors. His most challenging role has been the eponymous mafia hitman of Rosso, for which he learned all his lines phonetically, without previously speaking a word of Italian. Kari Väänänen was featured in Star Wreck, a Finnish sc…

Filmography

8.0

Kaverille ei jätetä

Kapteeni Kalkku

No description available

7.5

Night on Earth

Man #1 Helsinki

A quintet of cabbies in five cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.

7.2

Sincerely Yours in Cold Blood

Kalevi Repo

Kylmäverisesti sinun (Sincerely Yours in Cold Blood) is a Finnish true crime drama television series. All episodes are based on real life cases. The show follows Helsinki central police department investigator Veli Miettinen and lawyer Mira Kataja as they tackle with personal life problems and try to keep their relationship purely professional.

8.0

Suojelijat

Isä

No description available

5.9

The Hobbits

Aragorn

Hobitit is a Finnish live action fantasy television miniseries originally broadcast in 1993 on Yle TV1. Produced by Olof Qvickström, it is based on the events of the books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.

9.3

Team Ahma

Harjanne

Stories about things that happen in the line of duty to two good friends working in the volunteer road service.

6.1

The Man Who Died

Lääkäri Järvinen

Jaakko, a mushroom entrepreneur, finds out too late that he has been fatally slow-poisoned by persons unknown. He sets out to find the culprits before he dies.

6.8

Jurismia!

Opettaja Lauri Peltonen

No description available

4.6

Spy Games

Cabbie

CIA Agent Harry Howe and SVR Agent Natasha Scriabina team up to save the world, their lives and secret love in post Cold War Helsinki.

7.0

Lehmän vuosi

Kana-Jorma

No description available

5.5

Taivaan tulet

Kauko Junni

No description available

8.0

Kohtaamiset ja erot

Mafiapomo

No description available

7.5

La Vie de Bohème

Schaunard

Three penniless artists become friends in modern-day Paris: Rodolfo, an Albanian painter with no visa, Marcel, a playwright and magazine editor with no publisher, and Schaunard, a post-modernist composer of execrable noise.

7.2

Christmas Story

Iisakki

Hundreds of years ago in Lapland, a little boy named Nikolas loses his family in an accident. The villagers decide to look after the orphaned boy together. Once a year - at Christmas - Nikolas moves to a new home. To show his gratitude, Nikolas decides to make toys for the children of the families as good-bye presents. Over the years, Nikolas's former adoptive families become many, and soon almost every house has presents on its doorstep on Christmas morning. At thirteen, Nikolas is sent to live and work with Iisakki, a grumpy old carpenter, who forbids Nikolas to continue making presents for Christmas. Gradually, however, Nikolas wins Iisakki's trust. Together they begin to look after the Christmas traditional that Nikolas has begun. When the aged Iisakki has to leave Nikolas and move away, the tradition of Christmas presents is once again at risk. Thankfully, Nikolas comes up with a solution that brings children joy every Christmas, even continuing to today.

8.3

Seitsemän

Antti Mäkinen

No description available

7.3

Lääkärit tulessa

Mark Messien

No description available

7.6

Drifting Clouds

Lauri

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.

6.7

Hamlet Goes Business

Lauri Polonius

When Hamlet discovers his father’s deceased body, he finds himself pulled into a power struggle as his scheming uncle attempts to secure a monopoly on the Scandinavian rubber duck industry. Will Hamlet avenge his father? Will he become the king of rubber ducks? Does any of it really matter?

7.0

Master Cheng

Romppainen

Cheng, 45, a restaurant owner from China, has travelled with his young son halfway around the world to a remote village in Finland. His wife died recently in an accident, and Cheng wanted to have a break from everything by traveling with his son to see an old Finnish friend who lives on a farm in the countryside of Finland. It’s the most remote place Cheng can imagine with endless forests, thousands of lakes, a country with entire population of one-fifth of Cheng’s home town, Shanghai.

6.0

Ambush

Corporal Tauno Snicker

It is the summer of 1941 and the Finnish army has been mobilized along the border with Russia. A platoon led by Lt. Eero Perkola is waiting for orders to go on the offensive. The platoon receives orders for a recon mission through the wilderness around the Lieksa lake to search for possible Russian defensive positions.