Review by Gary Tooze

Production:

Disc:

Video (both):

Audio:

• Music Video (3:09)
• Trailer (1:58)  

• New interview with actor Sherwan Haji (15:03)
• Footage from the press conference for the film’s premiere at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, featuring Kaurismäki, Haji, and actor Sakari Kuosmanen (29:03)
• Aki and Peter, a new video essay by filmmaker Daniel Raim, based on a 1997 essay by critic Peter von Bagh, to whom The Other Side of Hope is dedicated (11:48)
• 4 Music videos (3:11, 2:50, 3:22, 3:42)
• Trailer (1:33)
• PLUS: An essay by critic Girish Shambu

Bitrates:

1) Artificial Eye - Region 'B' - Blu-ray  TOP 2) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 

Description: This wry, melancholic comedy from Aki Kaurismäki, a response to the ongoing global refugee crisis, follows two people searching for a place to call home. Khaled (Sherwan Haji), a displaced Syrian, lands in Helsinki as a stowaway; meanwhile, middle-aged Finnish salesman Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen) leaves his wife and his job and buys a conspicuously unprofitable restaurant. Khaled is denied asylum but decides not to return to Aleppo—and the paths of the two men cross fortuitously. As deadpan as the best of the director’s work, and with a deep well of empathy for its down-but-not-out characters (many of them played by members of Kaurismäki’s loyal stock company), The Other Side of Hope is a bittersweet celebration of pockets of human kindness in an unwelcoming world.

***

If you know the Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki, you’ll know he makes the driest of dry black comedies that rarely put a step further than a Helsinki bar – with a quiffed rockabilly band and pack of cigarettes never far away. His film are gems of poker-faced comic absurdism, full of expressionless faces and gloomy rooms. That’s still the case with ‘The Other Side of Hope’ – but this time the veteran filmmaker’s mind is on the European refugee crisis. In his own idiosyncratic way Kaurismäki addresses this hot topic by asking: why would anyone want to come to horrible old Finland anyway?

The beauty of ‘The Other Side of Hope’ is that Kaurismäki also manages to be touching and compassionate along the way. He invites the refugee crisis into his world, paralleling the story of Khaled (Sherwan Haji), a Syrian seeking leave to remain in Finland, with that of middle-aged Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen), who decides to abandon his job as a shirt salesman, leave his alcoholic wife and buy a failing restaurant after winning a pile of cash at a dodgy late-night card game.

 

 

The Film:

Excerpt from TheTelegraph located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

The Other Side of Hope gets an impressive transfer to Blu-ray from Artificial Eye.  It's in dual-layered territory with a max'ed out bitrate for the 1 hour 40-minute feature. The film is comprised of many medium shots and deadpan silence. There is some minor depth in the, original, 1.85:1 frame.  It's pristinely clean showcasing some hi-def detail and there are really no flaws with the rendering. This Blu-ray probably looks like exactly the theatrical version of the film The Other Side of Hope. The film is not particularly dynamic, in a visual sense, but the HD transfer seems a strong replication.

The Criterion is advertised as a "New 2K digital transfer, approved by director Aki Kaurismäki". Predictably, it is quite similar to the AE - dual-layered, high bitrate - the Criterion has deeper black levels colors and skin tones warm, but framing and detail have parity.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

1) Artificial Eye - Region 'B' - Blu-ray  TOP 2) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 

1) Artificial Eye - Region 'B' - Blu-ray  TOP 2) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 

1) Artificial Eye - Region 'B' - Blu-ray  TOP 2) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 

More Blu-ray Captures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As usual, AE offer a DTS-HD Master 5.1 at 1772 kbps or a linear PCM stereo track - both 16-bit and in the original Finnish with some English, Arabic and Swedish used in the film. The live music sounds very lounge-like-natural and grassroots in the lossless. There are optional English subtitles and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'B'-locked.

Only a 3-minute music video of the Kaipuuni Tango by Marko Haavisto and Poutahaukat plus a theatrical trailer.

Criterion include many supplements - we have a new 1/4 hour interview with actor Sherwan Haji and he discusses his move to Finland, working with director Aki Kaurismaki, and the ongoing plight of Syrian refugees. Included are 1/2 hour of footage from the press conference for the film’s premiere at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, featuring Kaurismäki, Haji, and actor Sakari Kuosmanen . The director addresses his humanistic approach to filmmaking. He won the festival's Silver Bear award for best director for The Other Side of Hope. Aki and Peter, a new, 12-minute, video essay by filmmaker Daniel Raim, based on a 1997 essay by critic Peter von Bagh, to whom The Other Side of Hope is dedicated. Raim explores Kaurismaki's oeuvre through the words of von Bagh. There is 12-minutes worth of four full versions of music videos of songs that appear, in part, in the film. There is also a trailer and the package has a liner notes booklet with an essay by critic Girish Shambu.

Artificial Eye - Region 'B' - Blu-ray

Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray