"Plays like an Ealing comedy on downers." – Time Out London

A middle-aged London civil servant loses his job. Depressed, he contemplates suicide; but, lacking the will to go through with it, hires a hit man to do the job for him. On the night of his planned assassination, he meets a woman in a bar and falls in love. Now, he must find a way to cancel the contract.

A moving and often hilarious black comedy, I Hired a Contract Killer is shot through with director Aki Kaurismä's distinctively deadpan style. Starring the brilliant Jean-Pierre Léaud in one of his few English-language roles, and also featuring a cameo appearance by Joe Strummer, Kaurismä's film finds humanity in a world of brick alleyways and dingy pubs.

"Fusing Bresson-style minimalism with the plot of a B-movie in overdrive ... I Hired a Contract Killer offers a delicate balance of humour and poignancy that is quintessentially Kurismäkian." – Senses of Cinema