A shoeshiner working on the streets witnesses an illegal immigrant boy escaping from the police and sets out to help him elude a tough cop and the attentions of a mean-spirited local given to making anonymous denunciations. This French comedy from director Aki Kaurismäki was the winner of the International Critics Prize at Cannes 2011. "Some wonderful, big-hearted comedy was provided by the Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki... Le Havre had all the master’s trademarked deadpan dialogue and delicious nuggets of bone-dry humour, and his compassion for the marginalised and dispossessed, but with something richer and sweeter than I remember from his previous pictures… Le Havre is shot in the French port town, with French actors and dialogue, though Kaurismäki’s repertory stalwart player Kati Outinen has a role. She plays the wife of Marcel (André Wilms), a dignified, stoic man who works as a shoeshiner on the streets. Marcel witnesses an illegal immigrant boy from Gabon, Idrissa (Blondin Miguel), escape from the police and sets out to help him. But a tough cop, Inspector Monet (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), is on his trail, not to mention a mean-spirited local given to making anonymous denunciations. Kaurismäki’s movie moves lightly but elegantly and quickly, like a little jockey on a powerful horse... Somehow, for all its comedy and absurdity, Le Havre addresses its theme with more persuasive confidence than many a grim social-realist picture… Kaurismäki is a master of making deadpan a subtle, expressive performance mode... What a treat this film is." (Source: The Guardian)

http://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/le-havre/