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A hopeless romantic, Iiris Vaara's (Minna Haapkyla) perceptions of romance stem from the hours of movie viewing she engages in when not working in her Helsinki bookstore. With such an idealized view of love, her experiences with real romantic relationships have been varied and disappointing -- until she is introduced to young film director Marko (Peter Franzen). Deftly able to discuss all of Iiris's favorite movies and thusly capable of understanding her unique romantic points of view, Marko initially seems the perfect man for Iiris and the couple start an intense romantic relationship. Iiris and Marko are soon forced to question the very precepts of their relationship when their film-based conversations become old and repetitive while both begin recognizing and stripping away the over-romanticized illusions each had developed about the other. The second film from Finnish director Aku Louhimies, Lovers and Leavers was selected for inclusion into the 2002 Montreal World Film Festival.