Kaurismaki tells it better

You can run as far as you want.

At the borders of the free world,

far up to the North.

Away from war,
away from bombs…

 But when your name is Khaled
and you come from Syria,

you’re not even close to finding peace…

Not even in the serene Finland,

country of Father Christmas.

A country everyone points at as to a model.

When all you wanted

it was precisely that:

security, in a country without war,

where to rebuild your life and a family.

Or at least what’s left of it.

Meaning a sister

lost on the way

during the odyssey
that brought you to Helsinki…

You are convinced she’s alive.

You don’t have much choice, anyway.

She’s the only thing

that still connects you to life.

From now on you are alone,

at the dawn of a new life,

uncertain and dangerous.

You discover the violence of the western world.

You’re not the first, anyway. 

Nor the last.

Years since Europe

does not give a damn about you…

You are as invisible as Wikstrom.

A Finn

as good as it comes (Sakari Kuosmanen).

Not the last in line

to refuse a schnapps…

He is also starting a new life.

He has just left his alcoholic wife

in the dead of night.

He was wearing a suit

and looked at his reflection

in the bedroom mirror.

 His wife was pouring herself
a drink

at the tiny table

in the corner of their kitchen.

A fat cactus
was sitting next to her booze.

He placed
his wedding band

and apartment keys
on the table.

And walked out the door.

His wife lighted another cigarette.

She picked up the ring.

And stubbed it into the ashtray.

And now Wikstrom is about to become

the owner of a restaurant

that runs in total loss.

Everything separated you two.

You had nothing in common.

The young refugee
from Syria (Sherwan Haji)
and the moaning middleclass Finn.

Yet, in Kaurismaki’s world,

you two absolutely had to meet.

We wonder what makes this filmmaker,

in his cold Helsinki,  

continue to find interest,

again and again,

in refugees,

six years after his previous film “Le Havre”?

As once again he blows our hearts

with his impeccable style.

With his falsely candid mixture

of tenderness and humor. ..

Bathed in a blue cutting sharp light…

In the films of Aki Kaurismäki,

to know one’s place

is the greatest happiness of all.

 And those who don’t,  

those who have been exiled

from their place in the world,

or seen it taken from them,

they have to find a new one

before their story can end.

“The Other Side of Hope”
is full of sly humor,
that works in any language.

It stretches across 35mm compositions

that look like

the coldest paintings

Edward Hopper never made.

The refugee,

the one

that cannot find his place,

it is you,

and it is himself.

It is us, may be.

A sublime film.

giulia ghica dobre

Aki Kaurismäki won the Best Director award

for his film The Other Side of Hope

at the 67^th Berlinale.

Kaurismäki was present at the awards gala

to accept

the Berlin International Film Festival’s

Silver Bear Award.