Cinema listings with film information and movie reviews
The Other Side Of Hope (Toivon tuolla puolen)
Finnish writer-director Aki Kaurismaki (Leningrad Cowboys Go America) conjures another quirky portrait of modern life in this offbeat comedy drama set in Helsinki. Travelling salesman Wikstrom (Sakari Kuosmanen) peddles shirts and manages to offload 3,000 items. He celebrates by risking his earnings on a game of poker and miraculously, Wikstrom wins big to the extent that he decides to take over an ailing restaurant bar called the Golden Pint, which serves sardines to clientele directly from cans. Wikstrom wins over existing staff including Melartin (Tommi Korpela) by giving them advances on their salaries as he attempts to turn the business around. He also hires a Syrian refugee called Khaled Ali (Sherwan Haji), who has escaped Aleppo and needs to procure a fake identity card to stay in Finland. The staff of the Golden Pint rally around Khaled in his hour of need.
