Screamingly funny in places, gorgeous-looking, marbled with melancholy and warmed through with an irresistible sense of compassion, The Other Side of Hope is the work of a master filmmaker at the very top of his game. Simply sublime.
Pure, unadulterated cinematic pleasure. Kaurismäki is one of the greats.
Parts of the film are very downbeat but the film comes complete with the familiar Kaurismaki ingredients: scene-stealing dogs, incongruous rock music and absurdist humour, much of it revolving around Sushi and Japanese ornaments.
The two characters’ stories converge in hilarious ways, but it’s the empathy the film generates – accomplished without speechifying or sentimentality – that lingers longest.
Aki Kaurismäki’s tale of a Syrian refugee who stows away to Finland mines the deadpan humour he’s famous for while refusing to flinch from heartbreak and hardship.
A Syrian asylum seeker finds friendship with a hapless Finnish restaurateur in part two of Aki Kaurismäki’s migrant trilogy.
General release. Check local listings for show times.