When does the movie take place?

I wondered that too. I guess it's just a mix of different time periods. For whatever reason, I don't know.

Good question. I think it's impossible to say when the movie takes place, and in my opinion it's not even relevant. The movie does not reflect any actual social reality, past or present. It's essentially a fantasy film, where Kaurismäki freely mixes elements from the past, especially from the 60s and 70s of his youth, with today's world, and ends up with a parallel world of his own making that does not accurately resemble any past or contemporary Finland, at least not on the superficial level of appearances. He has used this approach in his other movies as well.

I think that's one of the many details of this film that makes it unique. no identity, no persona, timeless.

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When he visits his wife, the taxi is a Volvo S40 (if I'm correct) so it can't be much older then 5 to 10 years. Also the environment and house of his wife feels very modern, 21st century. I suspect that's done on purpose to contrast with hif life in the shipping container...

Yea I was very amused by this seemingly constant change of the time & setting. Well somewhat confused as well I guess, especially at first.

In addition to the newspaper saying it's 1996, another clear indication of the nineties is the talk of the recession, which clearly refers to the early nineties recession of Finland. The story with the construction business, bank loan and the suicide is pretty much a generalisation of a lot of real stories from back then.

Then again the look of the "gang members" beating people up with the bat are definitely not contemporary. I can't even say what time period they resemble. Maybe the same as the rock&roll music?

And then it was so confusing to see the somalians at the railway station - and somehow just the whole station looking modern (anyone who goes there in the real world actually sees the exact same thing nowadays ... with the africans leaning against the wall... I guarantee it, any day of the week). Which again refers to modern finland, post early 90's id say.
I took that part as a sort of jab towards either the current refugee policy of finland which is heavily criticised especially by the lower class workers, or finlands perceived role in midst of globalisation in general (there were alot of other similiar jokes. "outsourcing to north korea").*


Then very soon after that scene we get the harmonica player, boiled water bath etc, and the wonderfull post card type colors. It's like a ride through time, I found it incredibly inspiring.

Also it was pretty funny that the very first train ride looks very much like something from the past with the crowd, old train seats and the yelling conductor. Ant then the last train ride, he eats sushi, japanese music playing in the backround, the train is almost empty, looks newer etc. Clearly modern again.


* in case anyone's interested, more ramblings about the refuge scene (which again is only like 5 seconds):
Kinda the whole joke of the movie is the notion that some people in finland "don't have a human value". So I think it wasn't a coincident that the first people he runs into at the station after losing his memory and name (human value), are gypsies and somalians.
Now that I actually think about it, the film could just be drawing a parallel to them ... kinda like "as long as you can type your name, the socialist system will get you by, yet you don't have much value in the eyes of the rest of the people".
My other interpretation about this scene is kinda like .. "the finnish hobos/alcoholics are in worse condition than the refugees - who are seen idling by the station".
Ok maybe im reading too much into a scene which is only a couple of seconds of the actual movie. But I still think it wasn't a coincident.