rightful homes
by Douglas Messerli
Aki Kaurismäki (writer and director) Toivon tuolla puolen (The Other Side of Hope) / 2017
Aki Kaurismäki’s 2017
film The Other Side of Hope—which he,
sad to hear, declares will be is lost—is about a group of lost people, a
Finnish businessman, Waldemar Wikström (Sakari
Kuosmanen); a Syrian refugee, Khaled Ali (Sherwan Haji) who, having just
arrived on a cargo ship hidden in a coal container—the first few scenes simply
show him washing the coal off of his body—seeks the where-abouts of his sister
and asylum in Finland; and Mazdak (Simon Hussein Al-Bazoon), an Iraqi refugee,
who, after meeting Khaled in a waiting station, becomes friends with him.
In
this film, the sad sack Waldemar, after leaving his clearly unappealing wife
(Kaija Pakarinen), sells the rest of his stock of shirts, enters a backroom
gambling room of a local casino, and wins big—maybe one of the largest gambling
miracles since Wayne Kramer’s film The
Cooler—allowing him now to finally able to buy into his dream, in this case
a local failing restaurant, whose employees have not been paid for months.
As
in so many of this brilliant filmmaker’s works, hope is suddenly restored, even
if the workers—the doorman Calamnius (Ilkka Koivula) and the waitress Mirja
(Nuppu Koivu)—originally doubt Waldemar’s abilities.
Despite their fears, however, he pays them back wages and gradually
revives the café, even if it remains a rather dumpy place. The same theme, was,
in fact, played out in Kaurismäki’s 1996 film Drifting Clouds. And now both Waldemar and his eccentric staff seem
to have found their rightful homes in the same nation from which Khaled has
been excluded.
Yet
the resilient Khaled miraculously escapes his detention cell, living for a
while on the street where he is nearly incessantly attacked by roving Finnish
thugs.
It
is strange that when Clark Coolidge and I went walking in the only night in
Helsinki I ever experienced, we too, in this wealthy and beautiful city, were
attacked by just such a gang, who backed off when they perceived us simply as
American tourists. But they were clearly out for blood for any possible
immigrant or person who might wish to enter their sacred society. Even if
nothing happened in that incident, it scared me. Were the Finns really such a
violent people as the Americans are in so many parts of the country? Yes, I
realized. Every country has its rightists who want no one to intrude upon their
territory.
These cinematic villains even attempt to set the Syrian afire, until he
is saved by some locals, and finally, after being found as living by Waldemar’s
restaurant dumpster, is put to work at the café. If he begins simply as a
busboy and dishwasher, he soon assumes larger roles, and grows to love his
secret immigrant life in Finland, particularly after Waldemar helps to get him
a green card and allows him a basement corner in his own apartment for sleep,
toilets, and showers.
Mazdak reappears with Khaled’s sister, found working as a prostitute in
Lithuania, and who has probably been raped by the trucker who directs Mazdak to
her location. If she is not entirely happy with her reunification, the always believing
brother does not quite comprehend her contentions.
Returning home one night, however, he is again attacked by the
ever-present street gangs who want his kind out of the country. These are the
kind of people who our current president encourages. And, in this case, they
stab him with the intention of murder.
The
lost, but reborn, Waldemar follows the pools of blood to discover his new employee-friend
sitting on the bank of a river, smiling, despite his serious wounds, as a
friendly dog licks his face.
We
know, that if he survives, Khaled must encounter further tortures. But, in his
own mind, at least, he is now Finnish, ready to learn that difficult language
and remain in a brave new world in which he will always have to struggle to survive.
Los Angeles, May 1, 2019
Reprinted from World Cinema Review (May 2019).
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