‘A Light That Never Goes Out' Is a Cannes Debut Opus on Outcasts, Depression, Music, and Hope

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7 days ago

'Take me out tonight…where there's music and there's people,' The Smiths say in their 1986 song 'There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.' Filmmaker, musician, and graphic designer Lauri-Matti Parppei grew up in the coastal town of Rauma, Finland. And they take audiences there and out to where music and people come together in their feature film debut, A Light That Never Goes Out, which world premiered in the ACID Cannes 2025 program, a sidebar to the Cannes Film Festival run by France's independent cinemas' association.
'Successful classical flutist Pauli (29) returns to his small hometown after a breakdown,' reads a synopsis for the movie, starring Samuel Kujala, Anna Rosaliina Kauno, Camille Auer, and Kaisa-Leena Koskenkorva. 'Reconnecting with old schoolmate Iiris, he is drawn into experimental music. Pauli, who has always sought perfection, is drawn to her chaotic energy and finds comfort in their sonic experiments.'
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Produced by Finland's Made and co-produced by Norway's Goodtime Pictures, A Light That Never Goes Out takes audiences on a journey of struggles and laughs. It has been picked up for French distribution by Les Alchimistes. Patra Spanou Film is handling sales.
The filmmaker may have set the movie in a Finnish location known to few but the universal story rings a bell on alienation and the healing powers of community that seems fit to strike a chord with audiences far beyond Finland.
Parppei talked to THR about the inspiration for A Light That Never Goes Out, its themes of outcasts and mental health issues, creating its experimental music, returning to Rauma to film, and possible future projects.
What was the inspiration for your film? And to what degree does it show some of your personal experiences?
My background is basically in the world that the film is showing. I'm from a small town, and I was a pretty lonely teenager. I had nothing else to do, so I started to make a lot of weird music and art. And through that hobby, I started to find friends. We were a bunch of outcasts, but we came from very different social classes and from very different backgrounds. And somehow we shared this massive drive to do something of our own and somehow shape the world to our liking. So I really just wanted to depict that world and that experience of doing art in it.
Was part of your motivation for the film to give hope to people who feel like outcasts?
Yeah, absolutely. I think 90 percent of the motif behind the film was just to give this feeling to people when they think how they could maybe do something like that. When we started making music, we didn't really have any skills to do so, and we just kind of learned as we went. I remember when someone asked me: 'Is it hard to hard to start to play guitar?' And I always just like saying: 'Well, it's very easy to play just one string, and you can make a song out of that.' So, this was our approach. So, yes, basically it's to encourage people to try out their own voice in different ways.
In the movie, we see the characters using clothes hangers and other unusual items you wouldn't traditionally expect to see in the creation of music. How did you create the experimental music we hear in the film?
You can say that it was a composition itself. Well, it was pretty meticulously written in the screenplay already: that's what's going to happen in the scene, and how the songs build up and progress. But then, after we cast the actual actors, we started to play around with things. And I brought them lots of crates full of different stuff. And our set production designer also came up with a lot of things, and then I kind of modified them and put on contact mics. And, yeah, I wrote and produced the music, but basically we created and arranged it together. Everything is played live on camera.
The protagonist is facing mental health struggles. I am not sure if you would call it depression or something else. How key was it to showcase these struggles, and how did you approach that?
Yeah, depression and anxiety – all the fun things, those illnesses or disorders, whatever the word is. That was a pretty integral part of the whole setting, because during the time when I was most active and still living in this small town – I actually moved back once – me and my friends, a lot of us struggled with all sorts of mental health issues, and some struggled with some substance or alcoholism and things like that. But somehow, making music and being with your friends always was a safe haven from that. Somehow it didn't reach that place. So, we really saved each other, even in a literal sense, during that time. And while depression and self-harm is not something that is thoroughly explored itself, it kind of paints the setting because I've struggled with similar issues myself. I kind of find depictions of depression a little exploitative somehow, if that's the word.
How?
In films, we are often putting depressive music and dark sounds around it, and someone is looking out of the window in a darkly lit scene. But being depressed is extremely boring. And it's about if you can find anything to fill up the boredom. Sometimes it's very harmful things. For me, it was pretty important to not romanticize depression, but show that this depressed person gets something completely different in their life.
Did you need or look for help writing your characters?
The two main characters are me in very different places in my life. One was me in a small town being very scrappy – I just wanted to make something of my own. 'Why don't people understand my ingenuity?!' And the other person is like me when I'm trying to be a filmmaker, and that world is very different. I kind of feel like a classical musician. I've never been a classical musician, but it's something that I feel because I need to adhere to some rules and bow down to the establishment and beg for money to make a film.
At the same time, I have a lot of friends who have been more successful, and a couple of people who are close to me are also classical musicians. For me, it's absurd how they face pressures and how they are just thinking about how to present themselves to other musicians. And I get anxiety just watching them being stressed about their work.
How is going back home these days?
I am from a small town, and during the time that the film takes place in, I was a little too visible at times. I am not a person who wants to be the center of attention, even though I'm a musician. We have a band, so it kind of protects me from that. But I organized a festival there. We had a small record company there. We had the band, which still has strong ties to the town, and now I'm the filmmaker who has made the first film about that town.
So, it sometimes feels a little uncomfortable to go to this place where a lot of people have an image of me, which is not really true, and they have had this for a long time, because I also used to work as a graphic designer in that town. I was just involved in this and that. So that is just part of being a small local celebrity.
What was it like to return to Rauma to shoot the film and will you screen the movie there?
Actually, we will have the first Finnish screening there. I was actually quoted by the biggest newspaper in Finland as saying that I don't care what the French say about the film, I only care what the people of Rauma think. I am a little nervous to hear how they react to it. But at the same time, it's my view of that place and my view on life and the world altogether. It's actually been super-rewarding to see how the film has crossed borders. Because the characters are speaking a very distinctive local dialect, and that's, of course, completely lost in translation. But that's the thing that Finnish viewers will notice first in the film, because it's very different. I've been super happy to see that there are similar small towns everywhere, and people can relate to the feeling of being there.
While shooting in Rauma, did you cast any locals or did any people come up to you to ask for a role in the film?
People were pretty indifferent to it in a funny way. They were just like: 'Yeah, they're filming some film.'But we have a lot of local people playing characters. The man playing a music store guy is a local guy who used to work in a music store that is now gone. And a couple on a boat was just some random couple from there. We asked them: 'You have a boat. Can you come play a small part?' So, we involved a lot of people.
Are your main characters professional actors?
Only the main character [played by Samuel Kujala] and his parents are professional actors. He has been in a couple of films and a very popular TV series. Everyone else is in their first role. Anna [Rosaliina Kauno] is actually from the town. We're so happy that we found her, because she really keeps the whole film together, to be honest. actually directed by a guy who is just in the room. Oh, okay, yeah, but yeah, well, but most days, just like new, complete newcomers and cool.
It's very important for me to bring new people along when doing something, and even though I know for a fact that at least a couple of them won't be acting that much after this, I hope Anna will continue.
Will we get to see more films from you?
I hope I can get more films made. Currently, I'm working on two different projects. One will be a super-micro-budget thing, a small, small drama about an abusive relationship, a psychological drama. The other one will be a folk tale, a film which takes place in the countryside in Finland, in a rural setting, on a farm. I've started writing, so it's in early development.
After my first feature, which took seven years from start to finish, or even slightly more, with a new project, I'm looking at a seven-year mountain. So it's just scary, but I think it's part of the charm of this profession.
Anything else you'd like to highlight about or anything else?
The thing was really behind the film, the whole concept was about friendship and hope, and what friendship and unity, and community can bring along. I'm just super-happy that the film, which I thought might just be a small, silly music film from my own hometown, which isn't that much of a marketable concept itself, is now out in the world and seems to actually touch people and pull the strings that we wanted to pull. I think that during these times, it's pretty important to have that.
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