--- name: "Turo Pajala" canonical: "https://film.one/person/turo-pajala" fi1m_id: "turo-pajala" imdb_id: "nm0656999" tmdb_id: 54768 wikidata_id: "Q5797159" roles: ["Actor"] born: "16 November 1955" died: "28 February 2007" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-26T01:47:43.278794+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Turo Pajala ## Identity Turo Pajala - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/turo-pajala - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** turo-pajala - **IMDb ID:** nm0656999 - **TMDB ID:** 54768 - **Wikidata ID:** Q5797159 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turo_Pajala, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5797159, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0656999/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/54768 Actor. Born 16 November 1955 in Joutseno, Finland. Died 28 February 2007. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 16 November 1955, Joutseno, Finland - **Died:** 28 February 2007 - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turo_Pajala, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5797159, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0656999/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/54768 ## Fi1m on Turo Pajala > Turo Pajala is remembered for one lead, and in it he does almost nothing for 73 minutes: a long face, a slow nod, a jacket he never takes off. It is the right kind of nothing, and Aki Kaurismäki built *Ariel* on it. Taisto Kasurinen is told over a loudspeaker that the mine has shut, and Turo Pajala answers with a nod. He nods again when his father hands him the keys to a white Cadillac in a café and steps out to the lavatory, and again when the roof will not go up and he has to drive the length of Finland with snow on the seats. The nod is the performance. For the first twenty minutes it looks like nothing, and somewhere around the half-hour it starts to arrive more slowly, and you find you can read a whole day's disappointment in the delay. We laughed at the roof, and at the father's exit, and then we looked at Pajala's face taking none of it personally and felt ashamed of ourselves, which we suspect is the order Kaurismäki intended. He did not have a long run at it. He began in the mid-1980s in supporting parts, among them Paavo in the Finnish noir *Pimeys odottaa* (1985), and then made two films with Aki Kaurismäki almost back to back: Rosencranz in *Hamlet Goes Business* (1987), a modern *Hamlet* set in a Finnish company, and the lead in *Ariel* (1988). Kaurismäki's method suited him. Timo Salminen shot both films, Matti Pellonpää appears in both, and in *Ariel* the father who hands over the keys is played by Erkki Pajala, who was his father. Pellonpää's Mikkonen, met once Taisto's luck has properly gone, treats him with a courtesy so weary it is almost tender, and Pajala receives it the way he receives everything, which is to say barely. It is the best pairing in the film. What Pajala does is a specific thing and it needs a specific kind of film around it. Kaurismäki holds the shot, gives him little to say and nobody to say it to, and lets the audience do the feeling on his behalf. Without that frame, a face that does almost nothing would read as blank. Whether his could carry a film made any other way we cannot say, because nobody built another one around it. After *Ariel* he took smaller parts in films and television and stepped back from public view; his last feature was *Kulkurin taivas* (1998), as Ahti, and his final screen appearance was a small television role in 2007. We have not seen the later work and will not pretend to. So the recommendation is simple. Watch *Ariel*, which asks for 73 minutes and pays for them, and go in knowing that its leading man will show you nothing and expect you to meet him halfway. From here the career looks rather like one of Kaurismäki's plots: a man is handed something, drives south, and does not come back. ## Biography Turo Pajala (1955–2007) was a Finnish actor. He played the leading role of unemployed miner Taisto Kasurinen in Aki Kaurismäki's *Ariel* (1988) and appeared as Rosencranz in the same director's *Hamlet Goes Business* (1987). For his performance in *Ariel*, he received the Bronze St. George award for Best Actor at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival. Pajala took on many supporting roles in Finnish films and television. His final film appearance was in *Kulkurin taivas* (1998). His last television work was a small role in the series *Taivaan tulet* (2007). He was the son of actor Erkki Pajala and had a daughter with actress Aino Seppo. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Ariel* (1988), Fi1m 80, as Taisto Kasurinen — [page](https://film.one/film/ariel.md) ## Complete filmography (15) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Palkkasoturi* (1997), as Työtön - *Lyrics and Lace* (1992), as Hotel Clerk - *The Prodigal Son* (1992), as Wrestler - *Pakanamaan kartta* (1991), series, as Kuvaaja - *The Nightmare* (1988), series, as Konstaapeli - *Ariel* (1988), as Taisto Kasurinen — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/ariel.md) - *Hamlet Goes Business* (1987), as Rosencranz - *Pieni yösoitto* (1987), as Raino - *Macbeth* (1987), as Make - *Näkemiin, hyvästi* (1986), Actor - *Päätepysäkki* (1986), as Jami - *Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan* (1986), as Artilleryman - *Huomenna* (1986), as Uhri - *Musta tuntuu* (1985), series, as Hakala - *Pimeys odottaa* (1985), as Paavo --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/turo-pajala