Finland is putting out some very good series indeed. In just the last few years, we’ve enjoyed and and now comes .
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.
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.
Katja (Kreeta Salminen) on the lookout for truth and lies. (Photographer: Markus Kontiainen) Source: Distributor
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.
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.
Soili Nylund (Milka Ahlroth) in ‘Enemy of the People’. (Photographer: Markus Kontiainen) Source: Distributor
Financial consultant and powerbroker Kristian Laine (Antti Luusuaniemi). (Photographer: Markus Kontiainen) Source: Distributor
Mayor and major powerbroker Pekka Välimaa (Tobias Zilliacus). (Photographer: Markus Kontiainen) Source: Distributor
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,” . “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.
Katja in the office with colleague Sami (Johannes Holopainen). (Photographer: Markus Kontiainen) Source: Distributor
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.
Katja (Kreeta Salminen) with Detective Elias Aro (Kai Vaine). (Photographer Markus Kontiainen) Source: Distributor
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.
