The other side of hope = Toivon tuolla puolen

Author

Aki Kaurismäki

Call Number

• DVD FOREIGN (CEN, WSQ)

Languages

In Finnish and Arabic, with English subtitles.

Performers

Sherwan Haji, Sakari Kuosmanen.

Publication Information

[Irvington, NY] : Criterion Collection, [2018]

Physical Description

1 videodisc (100 minutes) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 folded sheet (color illustrations ; 19 cm.)

Audience

Not rated.

Summary

This wry, melancholic comedy from Aki Kaurismäki, a response to the ongoing global refugee crisis, follows two people searching for a place to call home. Khaled, a displaced Syrian, lands in Helsinki as a stowaway; meanwhile, middle-aged Finnish salesman Wikström leaves his wife and his job and buys a conspicuously unprofitable restaurant. Khaled is denied asylum but decides not to return to Aleppo and the paths of the two men cross fortuitously. As deadpan as the best of the director's work, and with a deep well of empathy for its down-but-not-out characters (many of them played by members of Kaurismäki's loyal stock company), THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE is a bittersweet celebration of pockets of human kindness in an unwelcoming world.

Notes

Title from container.

Originally released as a motion picture in 2017.

Special features: New 2K digital transfer, approved by director Aki Kaurismäki ; new interview with actor Sherwan Haji ; footage from the press conference for the film's premiere at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, featuring Kaurismäki, Haji, and actor Sakari Kuosmanen ; "Aki and Peter," a new video essay by filmmaker Daniel Raim, based on a 1997 essay by critic Peter von Bagh, to whom "The other side of hope" is dedicated ; music videos ; trailer.