The Other Side of Hope Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

The Other Side of Hope Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 21, 2017

Winner of Silver Bear Award for Best Director at the Berlinale, Aki Kaurismaki's "The Other Side of Hope" (2017) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Curzon/Artificial Eye. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film and music videos. In Finnish, English, and Arabic, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

What we don't have isn't profitable

Aki Kaurismaki has never been an apolitical filmmaker, but in recent years he has been slowly altering the unique balance between the ultra-dry sense of humor and social satire that typically defines his work in a way that seems to be pointing to a new and permanent shift in his creative process. Indeed, until Lights in the Dusk there was always a substantially larger dose of the former, but Le Havre signaled an obvious desire to change the status quo and with The Other Side of Hope now there is clearly more of the latter. It is a change for the worse. By promoting big political causes and ultimately attempting to transform his films into relevant barometers of global socio-political trends, Kaurismaki is bound to lose the abstract flavor that made his films different and attractive. He needs to remain a cranky Finnish auteur who does not give a damn about the global ‘voices of reason’ because he is at his very best when he is brazenly witty and funny, not when he attempts to defend a political cause.

The Other Side of Hope is about two men who -- for different reasons that are gradually detailed throughout the film -- have lost plenty in their lives and are getting ready to rebuild them from scratch. The first is Wikstrom (Sakari Kuosmanen), an aging small-time Finnish businessman and big-time gambler, who has recently left his wife and decided to liquidate his business. Shortly after he sells the last load of designer shirts to a former competitor, Wikstrom enters an underground poker club, wins big, and then purchases a tiny restaurant on the outskirts of the city that has been run into the ground by some crook that hasn’t paid his employees in months. The old man then proceeds to change the restaurant’s image with a few quick and very bold moves that amuse the disillusioned employees but also convince them that they finally have a boss that cares.

The second man is a Syrian named Khaled (Sherwan Haji) who has entered Finland illegally but hopes to be recognized as a political refugee and granted residency. Khaled is also determined to do whatever it takes to find out what has happened to his sister, also a refugee, who may or may not have been detained by authorities somewhere across the Austrian border. After a number of interviews with Finnish immigration officials Khaled is denied legal status and informed that he will be extradited to Turkey, from where he can think of different ways to reunite with his sister. Hours after the immigration authorities make their decision official, Khaled escapes from the refugee center where he has been kept and bumps into Wikstrom, who then promptly decides to help him settle down in Finland and allows him to move into his underground garage. However, a series of experiences quickly reveal that many local residents may not be willing to accept the foreigner in their community.

The blending of comedy, drama and politics simply does not work in this film. One half of it basically targets regular Finns the old-fashioned way, making them look like the ultimate oddballs who most of the time behave like awful actors rehearsing a terrible play. This is classic Kaurismaki material loaded with very dark humor that does not disappoint. The other half, however, creates all the ‘important’ contrasts that are meant to convince the audience that Finland is this incredibly suspicious and intolerant European country that does not understand the dilemmas people like Khaled face. The moral contrasts that are promoted here are so extreme that even the old Soviet ideologues that used to work for Mosfilm would have found them absurd.

There is no denying that Kaurisamki can read his fellow countrymen brilliantly, but his take on the refugee crisis that is threatening to reshape Western Europe is appallingly naïve. It is essentially rationalized with a series of awful generalizations and politically correct messages that have been used by many of the politicians representing powerful multi-national organizations that are actually responsible for it.

The Other Side of Hope Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Aki Kaurismaki's The Other Side of Hope arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Curzon/Artificial Eye.

The film looks sharp and boasts many of the beautiful neo-noirish nuances that Aki Kaurismaki's recent work has promoted. Light and shadow are routinely captured in very specific ways, and especially the indoor footage can actually be quite interesting to analyze. Depth and fluidity are excellent. There are a few sequences where black crush emerges, but there are no distracting anomalies to report (see example in screencapture #9). Image stability is outstanding. There are no purely transfer-specific anomalies to report in our review either. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Other Side of Hope Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Finnish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Finnish LPCM 2.0 (with portions of Arabic and English). Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I viewed the film with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, but after the final credits rolled I went back to do some direct comparisons with the LPCM 2.0 track and I can't say that there is a noticeable gap in quality between the two. Both have outstanding clarity and depth, while the dynamic activity appears identical. You can also experiment with both tracks, but from my random tests I did not spot a difference.

The Other Side of Hope Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - In English, Arabic and Finnish, with imposed English subtitles where necessary. (2 min).

• Music Videos - music from the film. (4 min).

The Other Side of Hope Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Aki Kaurismaki's latest film, The Other Side of Hope, is as transparent and politically correct as the hundreds of films that Soviet directors made during the Cold War era to defend all sorts of different political causes. This is very unfortunate. I am a big admirer of the Finnish director but I find the recent politicization of his work to be very disappointing. If you have already seen the film and disagree with me, then you should be delighted to hear that Curzon/Artificial Eye's technical presentation is very good.