The Other Side of Hope (2017)

A poker-playing restaurateur and former traveling salesman befriends a group of refugees newly arrived to Finland.

Director:

Aki Kaurismäki

Writer:

Aki Kaurismäki

Stars:

Ville Virtanen, Tommi Korpela, Dome Karukoski

8 wins & 20 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Ville Virtanen	...	Oikeussalin viranomainen
Tommi Korpela	...	Melartin
Dome Karukoski	...	Huligaani bussipysäkillä
Kati Outinen	...	Vaatekaupan omistaja
Tommi Eronen	...	Huligaani bussipysäkillä
Jörn Donner	...	Pokerinpelaaja
Panu Vauhkonen	...	Liberation Army Finland
Milka Ahlroth	...	Migrin haastattelija
Timo Torikka	...	Poliisi asemalla
Sakari Kuosmanen	...	Waldemar Wikström
Elias Westerberg	...	Winston
Clas-Ove Bruun	...	Baarimikko
Hannu-Pekka Björkman	...	Pokerinpelaaja
Taneli Mäkelä	...	Myyjä
Elina Knihtilä	...	Aluevalvontaviranomainen

Storyline

Khaled, syrian refugee stows away on a freighter to Helsinki. Meanwhile, Wikström is a traveling salesman who wins big at a poker table and buys himself a restaurant with the proceeds. When the authorities turn down his application for asylum, Khaled is forced underground and Wikström finds him sleeping in the yard behind his restaurant. He offers him a job and a roof over his head and, for a while, they form a Utopian union with the restaurant's waitress, the chef and his dog.

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Plot Keywords:

brother sister relationship | police officer | skinhead | racism | racist | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

The actors playing Khaled and his sister, Miriam are real-life siblings.

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Quotes

Khaled: I don't understand humour.

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Connections

Featured in What to Watch: Cate Blanchett's Films of Hope (2020)

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Soundtracks

A Night Without Moon
Written and performed by Sherwan Haji

User Reviews

Deceptively simple but powerful experience

Remember the pretty boy Ronan Keating singing that you say it best when you say nothing at all? Of course you don't, you only listen to good music. But this could be the very motto of Finnish legendary moviemaker Aki Kaurismäki's latest. This minimalist masterpiece is so achingly simple and elegant and yet so complex in a good way, that there's no really good way to describe it, if you don't understand Kaurismäki's style already. „Toivon tuolla puolen" („The Other Side of Hope" in English, „Teispool lootust" in Estonian") is like a haiku: it can convey so much with so little words and even so little action. I can't find fitting comparisions here, but Kaurismäki comes across like Jim Jarmusch's less snobish cousin: even more concentrated on what it's like to be human and small things that life is actually made of. They both value storytelling through details but Kaurismäki's approach is more mainstreamfriendly: you don't have to invest yourself fully all the time to make sense of what's going on exactly. „Toivon tuolla puolen" offers two bittersweet stories interwining, about refugee in strange and hostile land and old entrepreneur who leaves his wife and finds fresh start in running a diner. It often feels like comedy – Kaurismäki's approach could be called Finnish version of Soviet nostalgia that many 30-year or older viewers will respond to and enjoy. Judging by Estonian premiere, it's a real crowdpleaser. But deeper down it's more about bleak and sad side of human existence: loneliness, being unwanted, trying to find purpose when everything has fallen down. And, of course, about how there's no winning with nowadays' refugee crisis – it brings suffering for everyone involved, except for maybe those who like to attack people who „shouldn't be here". I give this quietly hilarious and heartbreaking masterpiece a near- perfect score. Although it doesn't break new grounds for Kaurismäki, I can't think of a way how it could be improved in any meaningful way. The movie's not gonna satisfy everybody, nothing will, but it's almost perfect the way it is. Deceptively simple but powerful experience that you can't imagine getting from anybody else than Kaurismäki.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook [UK] Official site [Germany]

Country:

Finland Germany

Language:

Finnish English Arabic Swedish Japanese

Release Date:

3 February 2017 (Finland)

Also Known As:

The Other Side of Hope

Filming Locations:

Helsinki, Finland

Box Office

Budget:

EUR1,600,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$15,495, 3 December 2017

Gross USA:

$183,943

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$4,282,973

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sputnik, Oy Bufo Ab, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1