After high school, Kaurismäki worked as a painter of houses and apartments in the small town of Kuusankoski in the southeastern part of Finland.

Still wearing his painter overalls, he walked into a bookstore and bought the newly published History of Cinema by Peter von Bagh.

The Liar was an overnight sensation, when first shown in Finland; it marked the beginning of the Kaurismäki brothers' film career and started a new era in Finnish cinema.

The Villealfa film family consisted of many colleagues and friends in addition to the Kaurismäki brothers, including the actors Matti Pellonpää and Kari Väänänen and the cinematographer Timo Salminen.

Without a Map (1998), with David Tennant, Julie Delpy, Vincent Gallo, Johnny Depp, James LeGros, Anouk Aimée, Joe Dallesandro, etc.

During the production of Moro no Brasil (2002) Kaurismäki opened a live music club, Mika's Bar, in Rio de Janeiro, but gave it up later and decided to concentrate primarily on film making.

[4] On 24 August 2012, The Road North, starring Vesa-Matti Loiri and Samuli Edelmann, premiered in Finland, and has been a success with more than 200.000 viewers by the end of September 2012.