After premiering at Cannes and winning the festival’s top top Fipresci award, Le Havre has now been deemed eligible as a Finnish production. Aki Kaurismäki has lifted his self-imposed ban on Academy participation and Le Havre looks to be the likely choice as Finland’s official Oscar submission this year. In her review May 17, Sasha said Le Havre “renews our faith in the goodness of human beings.”
What’s so enjoyable about this film is that Kaurismäki has such a light touch with this heavy subject. What it also shows is something I’ve come to discover of late: the fundamental kindness of the French people generally in this region, the South of France…
Like so many films here Le Havre offers up an ending that is open to interpretation. Even if good deeds are done by men and women, there are some things beyond our individual capacity to fix – it takes something like a miracle to fix those. How you read the ending here will depend on whether or not you believe in miracles.
(Thanks to our pal Tero Heikkinen!)