“But remember now, everybody, you are fighting for the truth and that is why you're alone. And that makes you strong."
'The truth shall set you free.' Truth is true even if no-one believes it. A lie is false even if everyone believes it. Seek truth, reject lies.
It Is Journalism's Sacred Duty To expose those who socialise loses and privatise profits
A big part of the problem is that journalists used to choose their career to pursue truth …
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Journalist Katja Salose becomes the most hated person in her new hometown overnight.
This compelling drama series shows just how much danger one can face in the pursuit of revealing the truth, especially when no one wants to hear it
Finland is putting out some very good series indeed. In just the last few years, we’ve enjoyed Man in Room 301 and Mister8 and now comes Enemy of the People.
The enemy in question is reporter Katja Salonen (Kreeta Salminen, All the Sins, Deadwind). Only two weeks into a new job in a new town, Katja accuses former football star and local hero Samuli Tolonen (Jussi Partanen) of lying about pledging money to renovate the town’s ageing football stadium, which remains in a state of decay. Once it’s published online, death threats and sexist slurs pour in, and she gets a talking to by the editor-in-chief.
Journalist calls down the wrath of her readers by trying to uncover the connection between the murder of a local football hero and a cryptocurrency.
Searching for the truth she risks not only her reputation, but her life
Ousted from her former position, apparently due to budget cuts, it seems more likely she was given the boot due to her dedication to investigative journalism, a relic of the past no news room seems to be able to afford these days. Her brusque straight-shooting style also means people don’t warm to her easily.
While Katja has plenty of enemies herself, she also has the support of her colleagues, and news editor, Soili Nylund (Milka Ahlroth) champions her tenacity. Nevertheless, Nylund warns her: “If you want to keep this job, you must learn to hold your tongue. Because we must entertain people.”
And therein lies the difference in perspective here. News agencies are in the entertainment business, but Katja still holds onto the belief that her investigative work can change lives for the better – even while admitting the white-hot messes that can create in the process.
Turns out, Katja’s initial story about Tolonen broke the seal of a deep cylinder of corruption, involving a circle of men in top positions in town: a police officer, a financial consultant deep into cryptocurrency, the mayor and Katja’s editor-in-chief. When a simple fact check reveals that six million euros of the city’s funds are unaccounted for, Katja knows she’s onto something. So she keeps at it. Nylund prods her along, despite her earlier advice about keeping schtum. Then, when Tolonen gets in touch wanting an interview, and to talk about missing funds, she feels it – the exhilaration of being on the brink of breaking a massive story.
~ Nigeria 🇳🇬 and cryptocurrency …
During an interview with the mayor, Pekka Välimaa (Tobias Zilliacus), he observes that Katja has kicked a hornet’s nest. The interview is designed to smooth things over after the public outrage about her accusations against Tolonen, and to throw her off any further investigating into his pledge – and the missing six million – but it has the opposite effect on our reporter. Insulting her intelligence and putting on a show of kicking the football around with the local children’s team didn’t help: rather than throw her off the scent, the whole staged affair is like catnip to Katja.
Even as threats are slung her way from readers upset over Tolonen’s name being tarnished, and more readying for delivery from sources she is not yet aware of, Katja isn’t one to be intimidated too easily, and keeps lifting the carpet to see just how much is being swept under there.
Highlighting themes of truth and what constitutes news – and, most pointedly, who controls it – Enemy of the People is sharply contemporaneous.
Enemy of the People was created by executive producer Roope Lehtinen (White Wall, Bad Apples) and screenwriter Timo Varpio (Roba, Easy Living). Lehtinen is a former journalist and developed the idea with Varpio in 2018 when fake news was making headlines. “We felt it would be great to deal with such issues in a post-truth world, where people don’t want to understand or hear the truth,” Lehtinen said. “It’s a crime thriller, but instead of a cop investigating with a gun, you have a journalist investigating with a pen.”
The series is imbued with insider knowledge of what it’s like to be a journalist today in many parts of the world. All it takes is a subtle implication of a job being on wobbly ground to warn someone off asking too many questions, if it doesn’t suit the powers that be.
Despite the warnings, Katja continues putting together this puzzle. Her scant pieces collected thus far lay scattered over her desk, and while she’s still working out what picture they’ll reveal, that circle of men know exactly what it looks like. One of their number responds instantly to conceal those that are already visible and hide the remaining pieces before Katja’s able to lay her eyes on them. After all, the men are used to holding all the power, all the time. Or, for long enough that they cannot and will not give it up.
Trouble is, Katja has a strong inkling of what that picture looks like too, before the attempt to shatter it completely can be fully executed. And more supporters come to her aid, often from unlikely places.
The further she moves into her career, the more Katja discovers the public isn’t necessarily interested in the truth. Used to being entertained, they seem more obsessed with the titillating lies being spread about her. The circle of men her investigations are closing in on are prepared to protect their interests by any means necessary, and human lives cannot compete with their chance to rake in millions. As she searches for the truth, Katja risks not only her reputation, but her life. She knows this, and keeps going with courage, sticking to her principles.
Working for her is the adage that the truth has this funny way of coming out regardless of the lengths people go to to tuck it out of sight.
It’s no wonder the work of Lehtinen and Varpio has won numerous national drama awards and international recognition, including the Prix Europa for Best European Drama. Alongside Varpio, the series was also written by Laura Suhonen (Hooked, Black Widows) and directed by Mikko Kuparinen whose previous drama was the aforementioned thrilling Man in Room 301.
Enemy of the People deftly entertains, and with its locations in Finland and a sun-soaked Barcelona, it’s a superb watch as the cards come tumbling down.
Enemy of the People premieres exclusively in Australia at SBS On Demand and is streaming now
Co-penned by Varpio and Fire Monkey’s in-house writer Laura Suhonen, the thriller explores investigative reporting in an era of trolls and fake news. After writing a critical piece about the local town’s soccer star and biggest celebrity, involved in a dubious business scheme, reporter Katja Salonen finds herself drawn into a whirlpool of lies, deceit and abuse of power, in the middle of which lies a deadly conspiracy and an unsolved murder.
Former journalist Lehtinen said he and Varpio developed the idea back in 2018. “During the Trump madness, Brexit and with fake news making headlines, we felt it would be great to deal with such issues in a post-truth world, where people don’t want to understand or hear the truth,” he said. “It’s a crime thriller, but instead of a cop investigating with a gun, you have a journalist investigating with a pen,” notes Lehtinen.
Ordered by Finnish commercial TV and streaming service C More/MTV3, the series will be delivered Q1 2022.
“Enemy of the People” is quintessentially a Fire Monkey show: high concept, relevant for local and global viewers, tackling a topical issue that both Lehtinen and Pöllä are passionate about. “There is so much content out there; we believe that if our shows have a specific theme that we feel passionate about, then hopefully audiences as well will feel engaged, said Pöllä, who co-wrote the “Angry Birds Movie,” and co-created the hit show “Black Widows” with Lehtinen, former honcho of Moskito Television.
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