The Other Side of Hope

Aki Kaurismaki's The Other Side of Hope is a middling effort from this genuine auteur of not quite the first rank. I've seen half of his twenty or so features and only Ariel sticks in my mind as a masterpiece. The Other Side of Hope shares a similar port setting and immigration theme with Kaurismaki's 2011 effort Le Havre, but is not as memorable a film. Sherwan Haji's Khaled is a refugee from the civil war in Syria who disembarks from a pile of coal and then tangles with Finnish bureaucracy until he encounters Waldemar, a new restaurant owner escaping from a lifeless marriage and a job as a shirt salesman. deadpan humor and bad sushi ensue,

Kaurismaki's framing and use of color are always pleasant to watch. Markku Patila's art direction is vivid and longtime collaborator cinematographer Timo Salminen's lensing is crisp and striking. Members of Kaurismaki's stock company reappear, such as Tuomari Nurmio, Kati Outinen and Sakari Kuosmanen as Waldemar; all to heartfelt effect. Unfortunately, brutal scenes involving nativist thugs are clumsily handled and cartoonish. Kaurismaki's slow crawl absurdism cannot account for spasms of violence. Pratfalls are more his style. Khaled is not a Chaplinesque immigrant anarchist, but a Poitier like symbol of racial dignity straight out of Lilies of the Field. Thankfully, the musical interludes in The Other Side of Hope are tuneful, spry, and ingratiating.