JAN 26 — Le Havre

If you’ve never heard of Finish writer-director Aki Kaurismäki, LE HAVRE is a great way to get to know him.

Voted by many European critics as the best film of 2011, LE HAVRE is a droll, deadpan comedy about what Europeans call the refugee problem (and North Americans call immigration). In the French port city that gives the movie its name, Marcel Marx, a middle-aged bohemian, shines shoes for a living and worries about his younger wife’s sudden illness.

When a stowaway African lad stumbles into Marcel’s path, with the police hot on his trail, the kindly shoe shiner must make some difficult choices. The result is a charming, and subtly suspenseful, political fairy tale.

Highly regarded in Europe, Kaurismäki is largely unknown in North America, thanks in part to his habit of boycotting US awards ceremonies in protest over that country’s various overseas offenses. It’s exactly the kind of movie your film series was created to bring you.

LE HAVRE plays one show only, 7 p.m., Thursday, January 26, at the Empire Theatres Studio 10, 325 Prince Street, Sydney. Tickets $11, students $7. Our winter-spring season runs every Thursday through April 19. Buy a season pass to all 13 films for $90.