The Undressing (1986)

Original title

Riisuminen

Directed by

Lauri Törhönen

Genre

drama film

Country

Finland

Runtime

1h 27m

Rated

K-16

Rating

4.7 of 10 from 12 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A left-wing cabinet minister and his former lover spend a night together in a hotel room. They talk about personal history and their political beliefs while undressing and having sex.

intimateconversationalreflectivepoignantslow-pacedrestrainednostalgicthought-provoking

What happens

The Undressing (Finnish: Riisuminen) is a 1986 Finnish drama film directed by Lauri Törhönen. The film premiered on 21 February 1986. It tells the story of a left-wing cabinet minister (played by Erkki Saarela), who spends a night in a hotel room with his former lover and ideological workmate from his youth (played by Eeva Eloranta). Amid undressing and sex, the two discuss personal and ideological issues. The film is based on the successful stage play of the same name by Raija Oranen, which premiered at the Tampere Theatre Festival in 1984. According to Oranen, her inspiration came from a tabloid headline concerning Minister Matti Ahde, which later turned out to be completely unfounded. Jörn Donner purchased the film rights to the play for 5,000 Finnish markka and offered the project to Törhönen, who rewrote the story extensively. Oranen was dissatisfied with the final result and publicly distanced herself from the film. The music for The Undressing was composed and performed by Hector. A single record was planned but never released. The film opens with a short film titled Excerpts from the Finnish Constitution, in which Jörn Donner reads passages from the 1919 Finnish Constitution. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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