THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE

FINLAND - GERMANY 2017 - FINNISH, ENGLISH, ARABIC - 98 MIN · COLOUR ·2K DCP
A FILM BY AKI KAURISMÄKI
WITH: Sherwan Haji, Sakari Kuosmanen, Janne Hyytiäinen, Ilkka Koivula, Nuppu Koivu, Simon Hussein Al-Bazoon, Niroz Haji, Kaija Pakarinen

The film consists of two stories that by chance intersect at the forty-minute mark. The first one is about Khaled, a young Syrian refugee who has lost virtually all of his family. Almost by accident, he drifts to Helsinki as a stowaway passenger on a collier to seek asylum without great hopes for his future life.

Wikström, the other protagonist, is a travelling salesman of about fifty (representing mainly men's shirts and ties). In the beginning of the film he leaves his alcoholic wife and his profession and turns momentarily into a poker shark. With the small amount of money he thus gains he then buys an unprofitable restaurant at the far end of an inner court along a back street in Helsinki.

When the authorities decide to return Khaled to the ruins of Aleppo he, just like many others, decides to stay illegally in the country and disappears into the streets of Helsinki. There he meets, besides various types of racism, also pure kindness. Finally Wikström finds our fellow sleeping in the inner yard of his restaurant. Perhaps he sees something of himself in the battered man because he hires Khaled as a cleaner and a dishwasher.

For a moment life shows us its sunnier side, but fate soon intervenes and the film concludes with an open ending leading either to a respectable life or to the cemetery. For a person driven into a corner, both have their merits.

 

4 stars! "The Other Side of Hope explores the refugee experience without sappy sentimentality"
- Globe and Mail

"operating at peak deadpan"
- Winnipeg Free Press

"the Finnish auteur’s compassion and absurd wit once again abundantly evident."
- Toronto Star

"Kaurismäki’s profound humanism dominates the screen as his poetic, intense portrait of a tragic life comes face to face with the director’s trademark comic deadpan style. The result is a sweet and droll story driven by optimism and fuelled by the generosity and concerns of its characters."
- The Whole Note

"uplifting and optimistic"
- Wylie Writes

"Hope springs in Finnish director's crafty refugee dramedy"
- Career Critics Continuing the Conversation in a Post-Print World

NNNN! The Other Side Of Hope is just as warm and thoughtful as the rest of Kaurismäki’s body of work, and you might just feel a stab of regret that this story still needs telling.
- NOW

"the perfect film to start off a lengthy and arduous (in as much as watching movies and interviewing celebrities and drinking free beer for a week can be said to be arduous in any meaningful way) film festival: a movie that puts a spring in one's step."
- Globe and Mail