Sightlines · reception
How The Other Side of Hope was received
2017 · Aki Kaurismäki · The Other Side of Hope on Sightlines
The arc
Landed warmly in 2017 — Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlinale, hailed as the rare refugee-crisis film with actual charm — and its stock has only risen since Fallen Leaves (2023) sent a new generation back through the Kaurismäki catalog.
What’s debated
The perennial Kaurismäki debate: is deadpan whimsy a humane way into the refugee crisis, or does the comedy let the politics off too easily?
Its footprint
The chain-smoking stone faces, the interruptions of live rockabilly, and one gloriously misguided restaurant pivot have made it prime Kaurismäki-screencap material — shorthand for finding comedy in bone-dry kindness.
Where it stands
A beloved late-period entry and a favoured gateway drug into Kaurismäki on Letterboxd — usually mentioned in the same breath as its companion piece Le Havre.
Did you know? Kaurismäki said around its release that this would be his final film — a retirement that lasted until Fallen Leaves arrived six years later.