Kaurismaki boycotts Oscars in war protest

The Oscar-nominated Aki Kaurismaki has opted to boycott Sunday's Academy Awards in protest at America's war on Iraq. The Finnish director is tipped to pick up the best foreign film Oscar for his acclaimed comedy The Man Without a Past, produced by his company Sputnik Ltd.

In a letter to Academy president Frank Pierson written before the current air-strikes against Baghdad, Kaurismaki says: "We are not living in the most glamorous moment of the history of mankind. Therefore I nor anybody else from Sputnik Ltd, can participate in the Oscar gala at the same time the government of the US is preparing a crime against humanity for the purpose of shameless economic interests." Instead, Kaurismaki will watch the ceremony from his home in Finland.

It is not the first time in recent months that Kaurismaki has bailed out of a trip to the US. Last October he cancelled his visit to the New York film festival after learning that Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami had been refused a visa to attend the event.

But Kaurismaki is keen to point out that his grievance is with the current administration, and not with the US as a whole. His films have traditionally been awash with Americana, paying wry homage to vintage rock'n'roll and classic movie westerns. "The America I love is the America of [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt. Not [the America] led by the clown George Bush with the boy scout Tony Blair beside him," he recently told the Guardian. "Because I think with these maniacs we don't have a lot of hope. To be honest, I think the clown and the boy scout will bring us the end of the world."