Le Havre

Le Havre is Aki Kaurismäki's first film made in France since 1992's La vie de bohème, and it acts as a kind of loose sequel to that picture, with André Wilms again taking on the role of a character called Marcel. A shoeshiner quietly drifting through his mundane life, Marcel finds his world upended by two unexpected events. First, his wife (Kati Outinen) falls ill, leaving him alone and bereft, and then he encounters an African boy (Blondin Miguel) who has entered the country illegally, whom he decides to protect from the authorities. This premise could easily be the basis for a dark thriller, but in Kaurismäki's hands Le Havre is an optimistic lark, fueled by the Finn's typically deadpan humour and eye for absurd details. It offers nothing that we haven't seen from Kaurismäki before, but entering his world is always such a pleasure, and by offering a film that's simply about decent people trying to do the right thing it feels like a breath of fresh air. [Philip Concannon]