Aki Kaurismaki's Leningrad Cowboys: Eclipse From The Criterion Collection

Aki Kaurismaki's Leningrad Cowboys: Eclipse From The Criterion Collection

In the late eighties, Aki Kaurismaki, a master of the deadpan, fashioned a waggish fish-out-of-water tale about a U.S. tour by "the worst rock-and-roll band in the world." Leningrad Cowboys Go America's posse of fur-coated, outrageously pompadoured hipsters struck such a chord with international audiences that the fictional band became a genuine attraction, touring the world. Later, Kaurismaki created a sequel, Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses, and filmed a gigantic stadium show the band put on in Helsinki for the rollicking documentary Total Balalaika Show. With this Eclipse series, we present these crackpot musical and comic odysseys, along with fie Leningrad Cowboys music videos directed by Kaurismaki.

Leningrad Cowboys Go America

In their smash big-screen debut, the band gets a taste of the United States' array of dive bars and cocktail lounges en route to a wedding in Mexico.

Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses

the downtrodden Cowboys, led by their now deranged and born-again manager, sail home to the glorious wheat fields of Siberia, stopping along the way in various grim European landscapes.

Total Balalaika Show

this spectacular concert movie commemorates the unlikely but enormously successful collaboration between the Finnish Leningrad Cowboys and the Russian Alexandrov Red Army Chorus and Dance Ensemble. The disc also features the music videos "Rocky VI", "Thru the Wire", "L.A. Woman", "Those Were the Days", and "These Boots".