The Other Side of Hope

A young Syrian refugee named Khalid has lost nearly all his family. Almost by chance, he hid in a coal ship and became a stowaway in Helsinki, where he sought political asylum. Wikström was a traveling salesman who bought an unprofitable restaurant in a Helsinki backstreet after winning a large sum of money at the poker tables. Khalid decided to stay in the country illegally after the local authorities ordered him to be deported to Aleppo. Eventually, Wikström discovered Khalid sleeping in the courtyard of his restaurant and hired him as a janitor and dishwasher. Life briefly shows us its brighter side, but fate soon intervenes.