In the past few years, the Finnish audiovisual sector has expanded domestically and internationally. The upward trend continued in 2022, as films such as Girl Picture, Hatching and My Sailor, My Love won awards at festivals.
The year 2023 looks equally promising.
One of the most anticipated Finnish films is Sisu, an action thriller directed by Jalmari Helander (known for Big Game and Rare Exports). The Finnish word sisu refers to a combination of resilience and stoic determination. It is found at the very core of Finnishness, and it comes across in the movie, which features a Finnish gold miner fighting Nazis deep in the northern wilderness of Lapland, in the Finnish far north.
Time for screen time
Sisu, a film by Jalmari Helander, is all about action, as you can see in this trailer.Video: Nordisk Film Finland
Finnish TV series are also thriving. According to Laura Kuulasmaa, executive director of Audiovisual Producers Finland, 30 original drama and comedy series were released in Finland in 2022 alone. Many of them went on to do well internationally.
This is set to continue. Much-anticipated Finnish series such as Estonia and Dance Brothers will premiere in 2023. Estonia, a 15 million-euro series about Europe’s deadliest civil maritime disaster, was made in collaboration with creatives from series such as Chernobyl and Bordertown. On the other hand, Dance Brothers is a modern story about two brothers who start a dance company. It’s produced by Finnish national broadcaster Yle and Netflix.
