Another winner....

Another winner! Le Havre also seeks to humanize the immigration question. Finnish, Aki Kaurismaki fashions a lovely magical tale of a good man and his supportive neighbors. André Wilms portrays Marcel Marx, an aging shoe-shiner who finds himself alone when his wife enters the hospital with a terminal illness. He befriends an immigrant boy, the object of an overreaching and sometimes brutal manhunt. With the help of his wonderful and varied neighbors he sets out to smuggle the boy to London where his family works. With almost fairy-tale goodness and a nod to noir intrigue Marcel eludes the authorities, skulking around in a trench-coat, securing false papers and illegal passage. All the performances are delightful but Jean-Pierre Darroussin as Monet, the local detective, shines with particular warmth. Jean-Piere Leaud has a cameo as the lone malevolent neighbor, Le dénonciateur [the informant].