This article is about 1800 words | The reading time is about 4 minutes
All stories are the same.
People struggle to survive in the world of birth.
—Director Akikolis Machi
The Finnish film The Other Side of Hope uses a minimalist, quirky retro twist to tell the story of Khalid Ali, a refugee from Aleppo, Syria, who escapes to Finland on a coal ship to survive.
At first glance, this movie was only released this year, and I thought it was a movie from the 1980s and 1990s.
"The Other Side of Hope" is a film shot on 35mm film, which preserves the artistic characteristics of director Kaurismäki's films that are always high purity gray and low brightness, simple and poetic, and also makes his stupid empty mirrors look more intimate.
Best of all is his minimalist narrative shots.
Old-fashioned houses, restaurants, old-fashioned cars, dim colors and a group of expressionless, even wooden crowds, constitute the general tone of the characters.
The whole film is full of literary and artistic style, there are many empty shots, and the time process is slow, maintaining the consistent style of European literary and artistic films.
It is a film in a comedic shell with a tragic story of a refugee.
Originally, the lives of several protagonists did not intersect, but because of the existence of an underground restaurant called "Golden Pint", they intersected and collided with each other, and there was a story.
"Golden Pint" underground restaurant owner Vic Strön was originally a clothing salesman, due to the emotional crisis with his wife, he threw the door key to the woman without smiling, and then took off his wedding ring and threw it on the table, running away from home.
After selling 3,000 shirts, Vicström used the money to participate in a private underground gambling, and the scheming he won. So he used the money he had won to buy the restaurant that sold sardines, bare walls, a few tables and chairs, and one of the greatest electric guitars in the history of rock music to play a portrait of Jimmy Hendrix.
It's the life of an average Finnish elderly person.
On the other hand, Vikström is starting a new life, while Syrian refugee Khalid Ali is fleeing his war-torn hometown of Aleppo to Finland.
Except for one sister, Khalid's other relatives were killed in the war. So, as an automotive engineer, he borrowed $6,000 from the garage owner (who was also his father-in-law) and fled Syria with his sister. However, while crossing numerous national borders, he and his sister went missing.
He had been searching for his only sister in refugee camps on the borders of various countries, but he was beaten by the far right in his home country and fled in a hurry to a coal freighter that sailed to Finland.
Khalid is a lonely man with a determined look.
He came to the police station and asked for political asylum. Of course, what awaits him is to go to various shelters and face many face-to-face qualification examinations, and then wait for the results of the review.
Soon awaits the final non-appealable outcome: repatriation.
The censors announced the opinion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other departments that although there is a war in the Aleppo region of Syria, it cannot be a reason for residents to flee! Khalid was immediately tortured back to the shelter and was not allowed to leave, awaiting repatriation the next morning.
Ironically, the television news that night was broadcasting images of the massacre of syrian Aleppo residents. In fact, Khalid knew that he was to be sent back to his country, that is, to die.
The next day Khalid, with the help of a sympathetic female nurse, escaped through a small door, smashed a window and door, and escaped into the street. He later hid in the toilet of a restaurant with a stray dog.
This restaurant is Vicström's "Golden Pint" underground restaurant. The cold-faced, kind-hearted Vicström took him in and let him work in a restaurant. Vicström also found a relationship to help Khalid get a fake ID card.
Things seem to be a little bit perfect.
This is unlikely.
Khalid has always been worried about his sister, and whenever he has the opportunity, he will leave to find his only relative.
After escaping countless interrogations by police and other law enforcement officers, Khalid finally got the news that his sister was still alive.
At this point, Khalid was about to resign from Vicström. However, Vicström thought it would be too dangerous for Khalid to cross several national borders to find his sister, so he found a driver who had been running this line for a long time, asked Khalid to write a letter to his sister, and after the sister confirmed it, he asked the truck driver to take his sister to Finland.
One night not long ago, the truck driver really took his sister to Finland.
Brothers and sisters saw each other, there were no tears, only hugs.
Khalid told his sister that the next day she would turn herself in to the police station and apply for asylum, and that his current status would not allow her to be taken to the police station. He handed her sister over to a local Finnish intern who worked at the same restaurant and asked her to take her to the police station.
Brothers and sisters reunited, this should be a happy ending.
But not yet!
But when Khalid returned to Vicström's former shirt warehouse, now the gate of his makeshift residence, he encountered a skinhead member who had long bullied and beaten him, this time he was stabbed by the skinheads.
The next day, when Vicström came to the warehouse to call Khalid, he found blood on the ground and Khalid was gone.
Where has Khalid gone?
The next day in front of the police station, Khalid met his sister, who was ready to turn himself in. He gave a few brief instructions and left.
As soon as the camera pans, Khalid is lying under a large tree, the gauze of the bandaged wound has been stained red with blood, and the stray dog that used to be with him is also beside him.
He was smiling and smoking a cigarette that was about to burn out.
This is the other side of a refugee's hopes. Facing the road ahead, only the stray dog accompanies him in constant avoidance, looking for hope on the other side.
It's like the words my sister said when she met her brother: How easy it is to die, but I want to live."
Liu Zhumin, media person. commentator.