The Other Side of Hope

The Other Side of Hope (2017)

Toivon tuolla puolen

A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.

Date of release
2017-02-03
TMDB
6.9 / 10 (378)
Runtime
1h 41m
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Director
Aki Kaurismäki

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Puhos
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 4

The Other Side of Hope is a 2017 Finnish comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Aki Kaurismäki. The film was produced by Kaurismäki's Finnish company Sputnik. The story is about a Finnish businessman who meets a Syrian asylum-seeker looking for his missing sister.

Production

Aki Kaurismäki said he set out hoping to change perspectives on refugees in Finland. Sherwan Haji won the part of Khaled after answering a casting call for a Middle Eastern actor, Syrian preferred.

Haji commented he drew on his personal experiences to play the character, saying "It took me maybe 10 minutes to just close my eyes and think that I'm home, and then all of a sudden it rain bombs". Kaurismäki asked Haji if he played an instrument, and upon finding he did, asked Haji to bring the instrument to the set, writing a scene to incorporate this.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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