"Good people everywhere" is the main message of Aki Kaurismäki, who accompanies the whole film "Toivon tuolla puolen".
The action takes place in the time of the day. A refugee from Syria Khaled (Sherwan Haji) acts like all sensible refugees who left the country in time of war - go to the police, seek refuge. After going through a complex bureaucratic apparatus of registrations, interviews and living in the Refugee Center, he finds no support in the person of the Finnish government.
Based on the analysis of the situation in Aleppo (the city where the protagonist fled), it was revealed that the conflict in the city is not at the stage that could be a threat. The Commission came to the conclusion that Khalid does not need additional protection and decides to deport him to his homeland.
That same evening, in the news on television, Kaurismäki puts a check on all the bureaucratic apparatus of the Finnish system - in Aleppo, military actions are continuing until now, the authorities find the situation in Syria "extremely disturbing".
This move, seemingly so simple, reflecting the real state of affairs, puts in one corner ordinary people, refugees, and, on the other hand, the authorities of Finland, how they relate the data presented for public viewing - through the media - and then, as they actually do, they deport Khaled to the city where military operations are taking place.
But Kaurismäki does not seek to make a furor or scandal, he as an observer philosopher compares the data he has (in other words - with us) to analyze the situation. And he does it so skillfully that he layers the second storyline - about Vikstrom (Sakari Kuosmanen) - which leaves the drinking wife, breaks with the past business, selling wholesale shirts, and starts to open the restaurant. The truth does this in a very nontrivial way.
Kuosmanen was a real discovery for me. A great actor who is at that age to play the real bosses, directors, builders of his life. Whether it's an episode in a closed poker club where Wikström plays serious people in poo-and-dust, earning himself a comfortable future, or in a business office where he rigidly frames the framework according to which he is ready to purchase an establishment, or in the restaurant itself, where he, as a matter of fact, for the first time in this business, is looking for ways to popularize the institution and earnings (of which, incidentally, there are many comical situations).
Two story lines go along along the road to connect sooner or later. And the soundtrack is exclusively live music. No recordings, records or tracks, exceptionally live performance of ordinary Finnish performers, whose singing and music penetrates into the very soul. And although the lyrics remain a mystery to ordinary ordinary spectators who are not familiar with the Finnish language, it remains clear that they all serve one purpose - to support the characters, to hold them to each other, so that everything ends on a happy note.
The action takes place in the time of the day. A refugee from Syria Khaled (Sherwan Haji) acts like all sensible refugees who left the country in time of war - go to the police, seek refuge. After going through a complex bureaucratic apparatus of registrations, interviews and living in the Refugee Center, he finds no support in the person of the Finnish government.
Based on the analysis of the situation in Aleppo (the city where the protagonist fled), it was revealed that the conflict in the city is not at the stage that could be a threat. The Commission came to the conclusion that Khalid does not need additional protection and decides to deport him to his homeland.
That same evening, in the news on television, Kaurismäki puts a check on all the bureaucratic apparatus of the Finnish system - in Aleppo, military actions are continuing until now, the authorities find the situation in Syria "extremely disturbing".
This move, seemingly so simple, reflecting the real state of affairs, puts in one corner ordinary people, refugees, and, on the other hand, the authorities of Finland, how they relate the data presented for public viewing - through the media - and then, as they actually do, they deport Khaled to the city where military operations are taking place.
But Kaurismäki does not seek to make a furor or scandal, he as an observer philosopher compares the data he has (in other words - with us) to analyze the situation. And he does it so skillfully that he layers the second storyline - about Vikstrom (Sakari Kuosmanen) - which leaves the drinking wife, breaks with the past business, selling wholesale shirts, and starts to open the restaurant. The truth does this in a very nontrivial way.
Kuosmanen was a real discovery for me. A great actor who is at that age to play the real bosses, directors, builders of his life. Whether it's an episode in a closed poker club where Wikström plays serious people in poo-and-dust, earning himself a comfortable future, or in a business office where he rigidly frames the framework according to which he is ready to purchase an establishment, or in the restaurant itself, where he, as a matter of fact, for the first time in this business, is looking for ways to popularize the institution and earnings (of which, incidentally, there are many comical situations).
Two story lines go along along the road to connect sooner or later. And the soundtrack is exclusively live music. No recordings, records or tracks, exceptionally live performance of ordinary Finnish performers, whose singing and music penetrates into the very soul. And although the lyrics remain a mystery to ordinary ordinary spectators who are not familiar with the Finnish language, it remains clear that they all serve one purpose - to support the characters, to hold them to each other, so that everything ends on a happy note.