And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better—cheap happiness or exalted sufferings? Well, which is better?---Fyodor Dostoevsky ---Notes from Underground There are certain people of whom it is difficult to say anything which will at once throw them into relief—in other words, describe them graphically in their typical characteristics. These are they who are generally known as “commonplace people,” and this class comprises, of course, the immense majority of mankind. Authors, as a rule, attempt to select and portray types rarely met with in their entirety, but these types are nevertheless more real than real life itself. For instance, when the whole essence of an ordinary person’s nature lies in his perpetual and unchangeable commonplaceness; and when in spite of all his endeavours to do something out of the common, this person ends, eventually, by remaining in his unbroken line of routine—. I think such an individual really does become a type of hi
LAST TRUE PUNK BAND Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät
A mentally challenged punk band is the unusual subject of the unusually thoughtful "The Punk Syndrome." Focusing on the handicapped head-bangers who make up the Finnish band Pertti Kurikka's Name Day, this thin-ice-treading docu opensa window onto alternative culture, human nature and the very narrow line between so-called normal people and those on the fringe.
Proper marketing could take Jukka Karkkainen and J-P Passi's funny, edgy and very human feature into cult-hit territory, although the subject and subtitles will provide built-in limitations for this low-budget, rock-fueled verite movie.
The band's chief songwriter, guitarist and namesake, Kurikka, is a sensitive obsessive who has a fixation with seams (as in clothing). He's also a grizzled rocker who weeps easily and pours his heart, soul and problems into his lyrics
("Pertti has a speech defect/He can't throw a disco party/Pertti has cerebral palsy/He can't throw a disco party"). His bandmates make up one of the strangest punk groups in Finland, or anywhere.
Drummer Toni Valitalo and bassist Sami Helle have Down syndrome; vocalist Kari Aalto is also mentally disabled and has ferocious rage issues, most of them directed at Helle, a politically conservative NGO activist who in one sequence puts a good-looking Finnish pol on the spot (she acquits herself gracefully)
The band's chief songwriter, guitarist and namesake, Kurikka, is a sensitive obsessive who has a fixation with seams (as in clothing). He's also a grizzled rocker who weeps easily and pours his heart, soul and problems into his lyrics
("Pertti has a speech defect/He can't throw a disco party/Pertti has cerebral palsy/He can't throw a disco party"). His bandmates make up one of the strangest punk groups in Finland, or anywhere.
Drummer Toni Valitalo and bassist Sami Helle have Down syndrome; vocalist Kari Aalto is also mentally disabled and has ferocious rage issues, most of them directed at Helle, a politically conservative NGO activist who in one sequence puts a good-looking Finnish pol on the spot (she acquits herself gracefully)
The film gives us a peek into the lives of four men with developmental disabilities who also happen to be in a punk band. They are Pertti, the band’s guitarist; Kari, the band’s singer; Sami, the band’s bassist; and Toni, the band’s drummer. And they are wonderful, complex people with a deep desire to be taken seriously and treated like they matter.
