1 Nov 2017
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Finland
2016
98 min
Six years after the sublime, award-winning Le Havre, director Kaurismäki returns with his second film in a planned trilogy focusing on port cities. In this eccentric and cuttingly poignant comedy-drama, Wikstrom, a poker-playing restaurateur and former travelling salesman, crosses paths with Syrian stowaway Khaled who has just arrived in Finland, unintentionally, on board a coal freighter. Beautifully shot on 35mm in Helsinki, The Other Side of Hope draws us into the bizarre world of well-heeled dreamer Wikström and his new employee, Khaled . Topicality with devilish humour are on the menu as Kaurismäki tackles the most pressing of global issues, the plight of the refugee.