By Julian Ross

Just two years ago, Peter von Bagh (1943-2014) was the subject of a Signals retrospective programme at the 41st International Film Festival Rotterdam. I’m ashamed to say I had never heard of him before. But the idea of a reverse Pickpocket in the form of Pockpicket eli katkelmia helsinkilaisen porvarisnuoren elämästä (Pockpicket – Recollections of a Helsinki Bourgeois Youth, 1968) intrigued me and I headed to the cinema.