Culture clash movies are practically a genre in themselves. They can subvert every known genre in moviedom and turn its conventions upside down, making it a culture clash movie instead. Wasn’t „King Kong“ one of the first culture clash movies? From high drama to absurdist comedy, from harsh documentary to psychologically nuanced auteur cinema to roaring blockbuster, the culture clash movie tells us a lot about human experience and the bond we all share. Some of them are, of course, heavy on cliché, but the good ones don’t have to rely on that. A culture clash doesn’t have to turn into a culture war either. Anyone for a „remix“?

• Comedy-drama
• FIN, FR, GER / 2011
• Directed by Aki Kaurismäki
• Casting: André Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin
• 93 min
• French version, no subtitles
• Suitable for ages 12+

EN – Set in the port of Le Havre, this typically eccentric and tender Kaurismäki film tells the story of a writer and bohemian, Max, fallen on hard times and shining shoes to make ends meet. His uneventful life revolves around his favorite bar and his beloved, gravely ill wife. Then one day he meets a clandestine young African boy on the run …

DE – Mit seinem exzentrischen Touch und seinem unstillbaren Blick für die Unwägbarkeiten des Lebens, erzählt der finnische Regisseur Kaurismäki die Geschichte einer Begegnung zwischen einem Lebenskünstler, Schriftsteller und Schuhputzer und einem jungen afrikanischen Flüchtling, den er vor den Behörden zu verstecken versucht.

FR – L’excentrique au grand cœur Kaurismäki nous livre ici un film « portuaire » plein d’invention et d’humour, une histoire d’amitié entre un jeune ado africain sans papiers et un écrivain-bohémien obligé de cirer les pompes pour assurer son existence et celle de sa femme gravement malade. Comme toujours chez Kaurismäki, les mots ne disent pas tout.