In her role as “The Match Factory Girl” (Aki Kaurismäki) Kati Outinen embodied the epitome of the Finnish working class woman. But what is the reality like? 16 years after Kaurismäki’s 1990 film, three women from a tobacco factory answer the question. Karoliina, Tuula and Raija are among the first to have been made redundant from a factory that has since been closed down completely. They still meet each other to chat and talk about their plans. Karolina, the youngest, is a single mother. In spite of many job applications, she has only found work selling licorice. Tuula is over 50 and does not believe she will ever find work again. Raija tries to make a living as a semi-professional hairdresser. All of them keep trying to get work, but unemployment levels here run at more than 10 per cent. The “Tobacco Girls” show us the human misery behind the statistics.