Here’s the trailer for Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre, a film we’ve been following since its Cannes 2011 debut, which centers on a shoeshiner who tries to help an African immigrant child in the French port city of Le Havre (hence the title).

The official synopsis reads: “An elderly working-class couple living in the famous Norman port city find themselves harbouring a young African illegal immigrant from the authorities as he tries to make his way to England. The local police inspector suspects that they are protecting illegals, and a cat-and-mouse game ensues.“

It’s a comedy drama, which you can probably feel in the below trailer.

Kaurismäki has said that, with the film, he wanted to address what he feels is a lack of European films that deal with the worsening global financial, political and moral crises that have collectively led to increasing numbers of refugees trying to make their way into the EU, and the often inhumane treatment they experience when they arrive.

Color me curious…

The film has been very well received an reviewed thus far, and I’ll get my opportunity to see it when it screens at the New York Film Festival this fall. Of course, my review will follow.

Andre Wilms, Kati Outinen, and Blondin Miguel (as the immigrant child) star.

Here’s its trailer: