The Other Side of Hope

8/22/2018

In Aki Kaurismäki's 2016 film <i>Toivon tuolla puelella</i> ("The Other Side of Hope"), the Finnish auteur continues a theme he explored in <i>Le Havre</i> from five years earlier: refugees fleeing to Europe and forced to survive when heartless officials and some locals are against them. While that earlier film was shot in the comparatively exotic setting of the eponymous French port, <i>Toivon tuolla puelella</i> returns to Kaurismäki's familiar stomping grounds of downtown Helsinki. The film consists of two converging plotlines. In one, the aging salesman Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen, a longtime member of Kaurismäki's acting stable) leaves his wife, wins a lot of money in a poker game, and decides to open a restaurant. In the other, the Syrian refugee Khaled (Sherwan Haji) arrives in He

1/3/2021

Europe "welcomes" war refugees. Gallery of portraits in Tati-style sets, and a call to order, always in progress. Uplifting.