21/04/2022 - Following its bow at MIPDrama in Cannes, the six-episode Finnish series is now set for a local release, and we caught up with the director to find out more about it

(© Whatevergroup Oy)

After the murder of her friend, the result of a live-action role play (LARP) gone wrong, bullied Johanna (Olivia Ainali) must prove her innocence – also to her local community. Predictably, it won’t be easy. But detective Ulla Penttinen from Helsinki (Amira Khalifa) is there to help, and so is director Jussi Hiltunen, now behind the series Evilside [+see also:
interview: Jussi Hiltunen
series profile], produced by Finland’s Whatevergroup Oy and Norway’s Handmade Films in Norwegian Woods, and broadcast by Elisa Viihde following its recent bow at MIPDrama in Cannes.

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Cineuropa: Everything we have seen from you so far, from the 2017 feature Law of the Land [+see also:
trailer
film profile] to the series Bordertown, features snow. And lots of it.
Jussi Hiltunen: There are many good things about winter. I like the darkness, actually. I have always lived in Lapland; I haven’t been anywhere else, so it’s just normal to me. This is the world I know. The writers of this show [Aleksi Puranen, Antti Kairakari and Oona Haapaniemi] also live up north, so when people talk about Lapland and whether or not this constant darkness influences you… Maybe it does? Personally, I don’t feel it. I don’t feel depressed, and I don’t feel like I am telling gloomy stories over and over again.

Many people working on Finnish shows at the moment keep underlining that they are done with “Nordic noir”. But you seem to embrace it quite openly here, don’t you?
That’s an interesting question because I also agree that, lately, there have been too many Nordic noir series. But it wasn’t what I was focusing on when thinking about this project. I knew it was going to be set in this remote village by the sea and that there would be a murder case, but there are many other elements, too – the characters and their backgrounds were the key ingredients. I was much more interested in these people, even though we do get to know this community and their relationships through this crime.

Why did you want to feature this LARP aspect here [people creating characters and acting out various scenarios in real life]? People might not know much about it.
It gives you a chance to enter a different reality, in a way. In Johanna’s head, there is some confusion: has this murder really happened, or has it happened inside the game? In order to find that out, and find out what really happened to her friend, she needs to play the game, too, following his detailed instructions. Also, Johanna is bullied by others, so she already lives inside of her own reality half the time. Fantasy, for her, is a way out, a way to survive. It’s easy to imagine that she would try to find answers there.

She looks so strong at first sight, and yet she is so vulnerable. Once Penttinen arrives, they join forces. Did you always intend to have a more diverse cast in the show?
I don’t really care about the skin colour of my actors. I was just happy that Amira got involved – seeing her in this role felt so natural. The fact that all of the main protagonists are women was interesting to me, although I don’t really know why. But it’s not just men who are chasing Johanna here; everyone is. When you are different, like she is, it’s easier for people to blame you for whatever has gone wrong.

You became known for Bordertown, so did it add any additional pressure when deciding to approach another crime-related story?
Comedy, action or even science fiction feel very tempting sometimes, as I have never had a chance to try them. But ultimately, also when I work with the actors, it’s not about genres; it’s all about finding the truth in the scene. When it comes to this project – and I tried to be involved in the screenwriting process as well – it was obvious that it would feature many dark situations. But these days, as I am experiencing my own mid-life crisis, perhaps, I have noticed that I am trying to find warmth in such scenes. Take the relationship between Johanna and her father: they have difficulties with finding each other and finding the right words, but we were trying to find tender moments between them as well, ways in which he could show his daughter that he loves her. And we found many of them.