One of Finland’s most high-profile filmmakers, Selma Vilhunen has given voices to women of all ages in her fiction and non-fiction works, from the Oscar-nominated short “Do I Have to Take Care of Everything” to Berlin Crystal Bear winner “Stupid Young Heart” to her most recent pic, “Four Little Adults,” for which Alma Pöysti won best acting in Göteborg.
Her next pic, “She Did Not Show Remorse,” will be her most ambitious epic work, but also her most enraged look at female shame culture in patriarchal societies.
Vilhunen and producer Venla Hellstedt of Finland’s Dionysos Films, have unveiled details of the storyline and the first visual in exclusivity to Variety, ahead of their pitch at Haugesund’s Nordic Co-Production Market Aug. 21.
Vilhunen’s first foray into period drama is based on Tommi Kinnunen’s best-selling novel “Ei kertonut katuvansa” (“Defiance” in English), itself inspired by true events.
The story turns on five Finnish women who escape imprisonment after having worked for the Nazi army in Norway during the last months of WWII. As they set on a grueling journey on foot through the arctic wilderness, they soon learn that although the entire Finnish nation once collaborated with the Nazis, only certain women are now treated as traitors, the synopsis says.
Among the women is Irene, who is pressured to come up with a story to explain her months of absence to her husband. When she reaches home, she drops all efforts to lie, leaving her doomed marriage for good for the life of a drifter.
Speaking to Variety, Vilhunen said she was won over by Kinnunen’s “angry and sometimes merciless” novel. “The women in the story only have bad options to choose from,” she underscored, adding: “In my previous works, I have often focused on depicting solidarity and tenderness and love. In this film, I feel I’m opening the door to all the anger and despair that is also true in this world and in myself. The forces that are trying to make the woman’s space in the world very narrow are strong again today. “
“This is a story about what it means to be a human when the society around you is gaslighting you to believe that you are always somehow inferior or guilty of something.”
The helmer has already spent years researching the taboo topic of the thousands of Finnish women who chose to work for the Germans during WWII, even after the half-official Finnish/German alliance was dismantled. Vilhunen, who interviewed historians in Norway and Finland and read scores of historical documents, said she was appalled by the gender-biased material.
“Although the entire Finnish nation was a German ally, and German soldiers had lived and fought in Finland for three years, only Finnish women were treated as traitors if they were caught having been in contact with Germans after Germany was declared an enemy,” the filmmaker explained. “Men who fought in the war have their heroic stories of courage and brotherhood. Women, if they happened to have anything to do with the Germans, were put to shame.”
The prospect of directing the physically challenging epic was another strong pulling factor for Vilhunen, who herself walked more than 1,500 kilometers between Finland and Norway in her mid-twenties -although on another route.
“The physicality of the story is everything,” she said. “It will be demanding to make the film in the Lappish wilderness, but at the same time, I believe that nature will give us so much, and we must be able to adapt to a lot of what nature dictates.”
Vilhunen said the “absolutely fantastic cast” will be unveiled once filming kicks off in May 2025.
The €3 million ($3.2 million) project is being co-produced by Nordisk film Norway & Denmark, Rein Film and Filmcamp in Norway, with backing -so far- from the Finnish Film Foundation, Creative Europe Media, the Lapland Film Commission, and Kuusamo Council. Nordisk Film will handle Scandinavian rights.
In Haugesund, the project will be looking mainly for distribution, further financing and festival attention. “We are always keen to hear what kind of reaction audiences have to our story,” said Hellstedt.
“She Did Not Show Remorse” is among 22 carefully selected projects to be showcased at the 19th Nordic Co-Production Market as part of the New Nordic Films market in Haugesund (Aug. 20-23).