 |
| Wikstrom (Sakari Kuosmanen) with his staff - The Other Side of Hope |
Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki is the master of deadpan drollery and the art of the ridiculous which somehow delivers a finely balanced comedy and no more so than with The Other Side of Hope which he also wrote and produced. The film has an element of absurdism but never falls into being either cynical or overly sentimental while providing a sensitive look at the controversial topic of asylum seekers from the Middle East.
The film's plot essentially has two related stories which intersect providing both the essential drama and the humane comedy. Wikstrom (Sakari Kuosmanen), a travelling shirt salesman decides to cash-in his business after his marriage falls apart and after a winning streak in a local casino, buys a local restaurant complete with its existing staff. While taking out the garbage one night he runs across Khaled (Sherwan Haji) a young mechanic from Syria who has arrived in Finland almost by chance after stowing aboard a coal ship. Khaled had sought asylum in Finland but having been unsuccessful managed to escape from the refugee reception centre just prior to his deportation back to Syria. Wikstrom offers him a job working in the restaurant as he and the staff look at new themes to entice more patronage. Their efforts at masquerading as a Japanese restaurant serving sushi are one of the more hilarious moments in the film.
This is a pleasant enough film touching on an emotive social issue but probably more of a DVD than cinema experience.
The film's plot essentially has two related stories which intersect providing both the essential drama and the humane comedy. Wikstrom (Sakari Kuosmanen), a travelling shirt salesman decides to cash-in his business after his marriage falls apart and after a winning streak in a local casino, buys a local restaurant complete with its existing staff. While taking out the garbage one night he runs across Khaled (Sherwan Haji) a young mechanic from Syria who has arrived in Finland almost by chance after stowing aboard a coal ship. Khaled had sought asylum in Finland but having been unsuccessful managed to escape from the refugee reception centre just prior to his deportation back to Syria. Wikstrom offers him a job working in the restaurant as he and the staff look at new themes to entice more patronage. Their efforts at masquerading as a Japanese restaurant serving sushi are one of the more hilarious moments in the film.
This is a pleasant enough film touching on an emotive social issue but probably more of a DVD than cinema experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are welcome but are subject to moderation.