Now 88 years old, film director Matti Kassila has followed the local movie industry for more than half a century. "Inspector Palmu’s Mistake" is not only a favourite of the critics interviewed in an Yle survey, it’s also a favourite of the filmmaker himself.
The film was highly popular in 1960 when it debuted and was also received critical acclaim at the time, still it failed to receive the formal recognition of a Jussi award, the Finnish equivalent of the Oscar award conferred by the US Academy of Motion Pictures.
The Yle survey interviewed 48 movie critics, journalists and bloggers in the poll. Kassila’s film received the highest number of votes from the group – 20.
Renowned Finnish film maker Aki Kaurismäki’s “Drifting Clouds” (Kauas pilvet karkaavat), made in 1996, placed a distant second among the film reviewers with 13 votes.
However Kaurismaki’s film edged out “The White Reindeer” (Valkoinen peura) by Erik Blomberg, a fantasy film about a woman who is transformed into a white reindeer vampire, which earned 12 votes from the critics.
Aki Kaurismäki's "Man without a Past" (Mies vailla mennesyyttä, 2002) and Aku Louhimies' "Frozen Land" (Paha maa, 2005) were the only films from the noughties to make the top ten.