Le Havre, Aki Kaurismäki, 2011

Le Havre (lit. ’The Haven’) is a 2011 comedy-drama film produced, written, and directed by Kaurismäki and starring André Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Blondin Miguel. It tells the story of a shoeshiner who tries to save an immigrant child in the French port city Le Havre. The film was produced by Kaurismäki’s Finnish company Sputnik with international co-producers in France and Germany. It is Kaurismäki’s second French-language film, after La Vie de Bohème from 1992.

The film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it received the FIPRESCI Prize. Kaurismäki envisions it as the first installment in a trilogy about life in port cities. His ambition was to make follow-ups set in Spain and Germany, shot in the local languages.However, his next film The Other Side of Hope is set in Helsinki.