He tackles big issues but can´t resist adding jokes, once turning Hamlet into a story about rubber ducks. As The Other Side of Hope hits cinemas, the Finnish director talks about lazy actors, parking tickets - and his Holby City addictionTwice a year, Aki Kaurismäki climbs into his battered blue Volvo and drives from his home in a Portuguese village all the way to Helsinki. `When I was young, with my Cadillac and lousy roads, it took three days,` says the 60-year-old Finnish director. `Now, with good roads, at my age it takes five.` A shrug. What does he play on the journey? `Otis Redding. Dylan. Finnish tango. I haven´t bought new music in 20 years.` Helsinki is the setting for most of his humane and poker-faced comedies, including The Man Without a Past, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2002, and his latest gem, The Other Side of Hope. The story of a stoical restaurateur who takes a Syrian asylum-seeker under his wing, it won him the best director prize in Berlin earlier this year. Did he enjoy the festival? `Three days in a room. No smoking.` He gives me a you-do-the-maths look. `At least I had my wine.` He has his wine now, too, though he is going easy because he has to drive his dog to the vet for a knee operation. Related: The Other Side of Hope review - coolly comic take on the refugee crisis Continue reading...
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