Timo Salminen

Camera operator

July 11, 1952 (73 years)

Helsinki, Finland

Biography

Timo Salminen (11 July 1952 in Helsinki) is a Finnish cinematographer best known for his artistic work in Aki Kaurismäki's films. Salminen's father Ville Salminen was a famed Finnish film actor, director, writer and producer whose career began in the 1930s and lasted until the 1980s. His older step brother Ville-Veikko Salminen was a comedic actor whose career also lasted over 50 years.

Filmography

7.1

Fallen Leaves

In modern-day Helsinki, two lonely souls in search of love meet by chance in a karaoke bar. However, their path to happiness is beset by obstacles – from lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism, and a charming stray dog.

7.1

Ariel

A Finnish man goes to the city to find a job after the mine where he worked is closed and his father commits suicide.

7.0

Le Havre

In the French harbor city of Le Havre, an elderly shoeshiner with an ailing wife crosses paths with a young African refugee pursued by the police for deportation.

7.0

The Other Side of Hope

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

7.4

The Match Factory Girl

Iris is a shy and dowdy young woman stuck in a dead-end job at a match factory, who dreams of finding love at the local dancehall. Finding herself pregnant after a one-night stand and abandoned by the father, Iris finally decides the time has come to get even and she begins to plot her revenge.

7.5

La Vie de Bohème

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.

7.1

A Distant Neighborhood

Thomas, a father in his fifties, returns by chance to the town where he grew up. He collapses and wakes up forty years earlier in the body of his teenage self. Thrown back into his past, Thomas will not only have to re-live his first love, but also try to understand the reasons for his father’s mysterious departure. Can you change the past by living it again?

6.7

Kill the Jockey

Remo's self-destructive behavior overshadows his talent. Abril, an upcoming jockey, is pregnant with Remo's baby and has to decide between the child or continuing to race. They both race for Sirena, a businessman who saved Remo's life in the past but now is determined to find him, dead or alive.

7.3

Shadows in Paradise

Nikander, a rubbish collector and would-be entrepreneur, finds his plans for success dashed when his business associate dies. One evening, he meets Ilona, a down-on-her-luck cashier, in a local supermarket. Falteringly, a bond begins to develop between them.

6.7

Hamlet Goes Business

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?

6.9

Crime and Punishment

Former student Rahikainen is pushed to murder when struggling to pay the rent on his apartment. When the murder is being investigated by the police, Rahikainen struggles between trying to hide his guilt and the pressure to confess.

6.7

Lights in the Dusk

Outcast by his co-workers and living alone, Koistinen is a security guard who works the night shift in a luxury shopping mall in Helsinki. But when icy blonde Mirja approaches him, the lonely Koistinen falls helplessly for her, unaware she is manipulating him for her criminal boyfriend.

7.4

The Man Without a Past

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.

7.6

Drifting Clouds

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.

5.0

Amazon

Widowed and broke Finnish businessman Kari takes his two teenage daughters with him to Brazil. A bush pilot introduces him to the idea of gold mining in the jungle, but a beautiful and educated local woman warns him about the possible consequences to the rain forest. Kari has mixed feelings about the project, until an accident puts him in the care of a local Indian tribe.

6.8

I Hired a Contract Killer

After losing his job and realizing that he is alone in the world, a businessman opts to voluntarily end his life. Lacking courage, he hires a contract killer to do the job. Then, while awaiting his demise, he meets a woman and promptly falls in love.

5.2

Visions of Europe

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

6.1

Eureka

A cowboy arrives in a town in search of his daughter, a native policewoman arrests various offenders in a snowy landscape, while her niece, a basketball coach, reunites with her grandfather for a decisive journey that will shape her future, and a bird flies through time and space and begins to enter the minds and dreams of a native tribe in the Amazon jungle.

6.9

Leningrad Cowboys Go America

The Leningrad Cowboys, a group of Siberian musicians, and their manager, travel to America seeking fame and fortune. As they cross the country, trying to get to a wedding in Mexico, they are followed by the village idiot, who wishes to join the band.

6.5

Jauja

A father and daughter journey from Denmark to an unknown desert that exists in a realm beyond the confines of civilization.