After losing his friend and co-worker to a sudden heart attack, lonely Helsinki garbageman Nikander finds himself completely directionless. But unlikely redemption comes in the form of Ilona, a plain supermarket cashier with whom he begins a tentative love affair.

The first entry in Aki Kaurismäki’s so-called “Proletariat Trilogy,” Shadows in Paradise effectively set the template for the maestro’s singular style. Punctuated with bursts of primary colors, this beautiful wisp of a film finds a delicately negotiated optimism amid the ruins of its dashed dreams.