The Other Side of Hope: a True Easter Show

THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE will not be in line for any award Peter Dutton might lend his name to.

Khaled, a young Syrian refugee who has lost virtually all of his family, drifts to Helsinki as a stowaway passenger on a collier to seek asylum without great hopes for his future life. Honourable and honest, he reports to the local police, not wanting to be considered an illegal.

Simultaneously, Wikström, a travelling salesman of about fifty wholesaling mainly men’s shirts and ties, becomes a refugee from a broken marriage, walking out on his alcoholic wife and selling his entire stock of cravats and collars.

Going for broke personally and professionally, he stakes his stash on a poker game in which he cleans up. With the winnings he buys an unprofitable restaurant at the far end of an inner court along a back street in Helsinki. Along with the venue, he inherits a trio of eccentric employees – a cook, a maitre d’ and a waitress.

When the authorities decide to return Khaled to the ruins of Aleppo he, just like many others, decides to stay illegally in the country, dossing down near the restaurant. Wikström hires Khaled as a cleaner and a dishwasher.

Aki Kaurismäki’s deliciously deadpan writing and direction make this very serious issue vibrate with an ineffable charm, aided and abetted by an equally charming performance from Sherwan Haji as Khaled.

Kaurismäki states “With this film, I try to do my best to shatter the European way of only seeing refugees as either pitiful victims or arrogant economic immigrants invading our societies merely to steal our jobs, our wives, our homes and our cars.

In European history, the creation and enforcement of stereotypical prejudices carries a sinister echo. I freely admit that “The Other Side Of Hope” is unscrupulously attempting to influence the views and the opinions of its viewers whilst trying to manipulate their emotions in order to reach that goal.

Because these efforts will naturally fail what will remain is, I hope, an upright and slightly melancholy story carried along by humour.”

Kaurismäki has certainly hit his mark with this fine balance of melancholy and comedy, inserting a playfulness into the plight of those who must take flight from oppression.

Textural touches range from the absurd to the ridiculous, choices that serve to focus on friendship and kindness whilst acknowledging the existence of unmitigated malevolence.

THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE is an ambiguous title. It can be taken to mean despair, if other side is taken as opposite, or it can take on the positive spin that the other side is the fulfilment of hope. Both territories are traversed in the film, and it’s a journey worth taking. What you make of the destination is up to you.