The Other Side of Hope [Toivon tuolla puolen] **** (2017, Sherwan Haji, Sakari Kuosmanen, Ville Virtanen, Kati Outinen) – Movie Review

The great Aki Kaurismäki is back on inspired form with a typical black comedy drama, in a story that offers him the best chance to do all the things he has being doing for three decades.

It’s an oddball, hauntingly weird tale of a Syrian refugee Khaled (Sherwan Haji) who finds his way to Finland to start a new life and the older Finnish poker-playing restaurateur Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen) who opens a small restaurant in Helsinki and employs and befriends him. The refugee tries to start a new life proper in Finland, but the surprisingly heartless state wants to send him back and he escapes into the big heartless city to try to survive as an illegal alien.

Hardships are met, cultures clash, people collide, but, with plenty of oddball humour, there seems some hope, yet here we are on The Other Side of Hope. That is probably not good then, as it doesn’t sound as though it is going to end well. Kaurismäki deals in metaphors, finds relevance, laughs and truths, and turns in a great-looking movie.

Writer-producer-director Kaurismäki designed the detailed visual look of the film and provided a large part of the props. Using film instead of digital, Timo Salminen’s cinematography makes excellent use of framing and colours.

This is a heck of a fine film on many levels, one of Aki’s best. It’s a story about somebody and something, and knows where it is going and what it is doing, no rambling, no messing. It creeps up on you and works up to a devastating conclusion, delivering a punch to the gut, horrible but desperately satisfying.

Life’s a bitch, a black comedy, then you die, says Aki. He makes Finland seem bleak but somehow still fun. Maybe he wants to make you see Finnish films rather than go to Finland, though.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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