The Other Side of Hope (2017)

THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE  (2017)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Aki Kaurismaki
    Sherwan Haji, Sakari Kuosmanen, Kati Outinen,
    Tommi Korpela, Nirz Haji, Simon Al-Bazoon
A Syrian refugee named Khaled stows away on a cargo ship and ends up in Helsinki, where he tries to adjust to life as a stranger in a strange land. It's Kaurismaki reworking the story he told in "Le Havre" (2011), and it's another tale about common humanity overcoming (at least some of the time) long and often inhuman odds. The humor's more deadpan than ever, and a lot of what happens isn't funny at all. Khaled won't give up, though, no matter how the fates (and racist thugs and indifferent bureaucrats) are knocking him around. Nothing that happens in Helsinki can possibly be worse than the horror he's left behind, and he knows it, and so he trudges on. Maybe that's the other side of hope.