Finnish film has a darkly humorous side

The movies of Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki with their deadpan drollery have long been a habit-forming pleasure.

This sympathetic and charming tale of a Syrian refugee who stows away to Finland mines the dark humour for which Kaurismäki’s famous while refusing to flinch from heartbreak and hardship.

It’s a humane comedy, with an air of unworldly absurdity, which doesn’t undermine its seriousness in any way, in fact embraces it with almost miraculous ease and simplicity.

The film is shown with subtitles.