The Other Side of Hope (2017)

Aki Kaurismäki, Finland's best known director, is a man fascinated by the meeting of cultures, one of his best known films Le Havre is about an African immigrant boy in France, while Leningrad Cowboys Go America is an almost Christopher Guestian story a fake Russian bands first tour of the United States. The Other Side of Hope tells two stories that meet half way through, one about a recently separated middle-aged Finn (Sakari Kuosmanen) who sells his own business to buy a small restaurant, and the other about a Syrian refuge and illegal immigrant (Sherwan Haji) searching for his lost sister. Kaurismäki can be deeply empathetic and embraces a throwback populist style out of a Frank Capra film from the 1930's, yet he also openly confronts the thoughtlessness of war, prejudice and bureaucracy. This movie contains comic high points like the staff of the restaurant Goldin Pint's brief and ill-fated attempt to turn the place into a chic sushi joint, and the existential horror of the immigrant facing both the banal bureaucracy of the state, and the outright hatred of nativist gangs.  Kaurismäki balances these sides of his film well for a movie that at its heart is an ode to decency. ****