With this superb film, the great Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki returns to the subject that haunts Europe: immigration. In Kaurismäki’s 2011 Le Havre, the immigrant is an 11-year-old black African. In The Other Side of Hope, the immigrant is a Syrian refugee. The former is set in France; the latter is set in Kaurismäki’s country, Finland. The former film is a fairy tale; the latter is much less so. Its realism is in the understanding that though neo-Nazis are a bunch of buffoons, their politics present a real and consistent danger for a democracy. The film is also plenty funny. by Charles Mudede