Friday evening I went to the Detroit Film Theater to see the movie The Other Side of Hope, directed by director Aki Kaurismaki of Finland. It was described as “deeply comic” and rated rather high, so I gave it a chance.
The story is topical. Khalid has escaped the war in Syria and is applying for asylum in Helsinki. He is also looking for his sister who got separated from him during their travels. One of the locals is Wikstrom, a guy who has had enough of selling shirts to clothing stores. He gets someone to buy out his inventory and uses that to buy a small restaurant. He got it cheap because the three employees haven’t been paid in three months. Of course, Khalid and Wikstrom meet up.
The characters and situations are a bit eccentric such as attempts to liven the restaurant to make it more profitable. But the humor is droll to deadpan to subtle to lost in translation. I smiled some and laughed a bit. It was OK, but not the laugh festival I anticipated with a description such as “deeply comic.”
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