THE REVIEW WAS UPDATED
Writer and director Ahti Tolvanen, who is a member of the Migrant Tales board, has written a play that reflects hard and uncertain times for Finland. When Ahti came to Finland in the 1970s, it was a very different country. For one, its foreign policy, which some criticized as Finlandization, attempted to coexist with its giant eastern neighbor.
But matters have chaned from those cold war years. Some Finnish politicians regularly beat their chests at Russia and believe that NATO will save the day if Finland is ever invaded by Russia.
“Before, Finland’s foreign policy wa dicttd by the Soviet Union and now we are prostrate towards the United States,” said Tolvanen. “Finland seems to be adrift and nobody can see where it is heading.”
The play offers a different narrative and take on things. Geopolitics, politics, immigration policy and other factors come to light and offer the viewer a chance to reflect where the country is heading.
Helsinki Noir, which has showed in Helsinki and London, has received some rave reviews:
“Satirizing ultra-conservative politicians…raising public awareness, and empowering the disempowered” – Yuko Kurahashi, a vising reviewer and professor of drama, Kent State University.
“A wonderful show” said Laura Killeen, director of Rosemary Branch, London
See the full play here.
The cast was made up by Ahti Tolvanen, Eric Riekko, Elia Ronin, Marita ämsä, Maia Kosonen and Peter Joy.
Since the play “Helsinki Noir” closed in London August 1st, 2024 the situation regarding Finnish-Russian relations has continued to unfold.
On Christmas Day the oil tanker “Eagle 5”, was taken into custody by Finnish border authorities for suspicious activities at sea leading to severing of an electrical transmission cable from Finland to Estonia. The ship of Cook Islands registry is evidently part of the “shadow fleet” used by Russia to export oil to foreign buyers.
It is suspected that the ship deliberately towed its anchor to cut the electric cable. Although greeted by the authorities with shock and dismay, such an action was not surprising in view of the fact that Finland has sent arms to Ukraine to kill Russians for several years now since its about- face on the country´s signature neutrality policy avoiding arms trading with conflict zones.
Can it be that politicians somehow believed delivery of lethal weapons would have no consequences from those being killed and injured by them for months and years? This is a fairly direct foreseeable- though late- consequence of the hasty dropping of the neutrality policy under PM Marin as described in a scene of the play.
On New year’s Day Interior Rantanen declared again that the Russian border would remain closed in reaction to a Russian blogger falsely reporting the border was now open, encouraging migrant mobs to the frontier. What was not assessed was whether the report was actually an official Russian contrivance to have Rantanen do just that- leave the border shut causing mounting losses in trade mounting to billions of Euros to date.