Even though Finnish writer-director Aki Kaurismäki has been making films for the past 30 years, he's best known to arthouse crowds and festivalgoers, racking up an impressive number of awards for films like "Lights in the Dusk," "The Man Without A Past," and his latest, "Le Havre." Set in the Northern France port city that shares its name, "Le Havre" is another of Kaurismaki's charmingly deadpan comedies, walking that uncommon line between satire and sincerity. "Le Havre" drops us in on the blue-collar life of Marcel (André Wilms), a 60-something shoeshine man whose entrenched work/café/home schedule is upended both by his wife's sudden illness and an illegal African immigrant.

Marcel encounters young Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) as he's escaping from the authorities on the docks, giving the man a palpable purpose while his beloved Arletty (the silent-film-faced Kaurismäki regular Kati Outinen) recovers in the hospital. Kaurismäki uses a drab palette with occasional pops of well-placed color and holds shots a beat longer than we're used to, which can sometimes seem deliberately precious. But Kaurismäki makes his point about immigration without being overtly political, his "Le Havre" largely a fairytale place where neighbors rally together to throw "a trendy benefit concert" in a matter of days and where good guys wear black.