Toivon tuolla puolen (2017)

	Also Known As: The other side of hope, Die andere Seite der Hoffnung
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Aki Kaurismäki
	Actors: Sherwn Haji, Sakari Kuosmanen, Ilkka Koivula
	Country: FIN, D
	Genre: Comedy, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 27.08.2017, Schauburg, OV sneak preview, Finnish/English/Arabic/Swedish version with German subtitles
Synopsis: Khaled (Haji) is a Syrian refugee travelling around Europe looking for his sister lost during the first part of the travel. Wikström (Kuosmanen) quits his boring job and his wife. He wants a new life. After a positive poker game, he buys a restaurant and has continuously new ideas for it. Kalamnius (Koivula) is one of the three employees.
Review: As in Le Havre, Kaurismäki focuses this movie on the immigration and the reaction from the rich country where the migrants arrive. This time in his own country, Finland. The typical strange and cold humour from Finland is omnipresent and is the major bonus of the movie. Many truths about immigrants are told, that they do not come to Europe for pleasure; that they actually love their country and family and would prefer to stay with them if there would be no war; that they are a bonus for the local economy as they are cheap workers for European companies; that they would try again if they are sent back to their country of origin.  The acting is as the targetted humour, strange and cold. The actors do not show much emotion. Therefore, either you can deal with it and you like it or you cannot and then the movie gets boring. Andd this was a bit my case. The choice of the locations, especially the restaurant in which many scenes are shot, enhances very well the humour. Even the clothes of the main characters look old and dusty. Only Khaled looks modern.  The most hilarious plot is the restaurant itself and the changes from Finnish food to Japanese and to Indian food. Really good!
Rating: 4 /10