From Helsinki to Talinn

In 1917 Finland became an independent country and in 1918 there was a civil war. After the political situation had settled and stabilized, Finnish society and its cultural life began to develop. This was very clear with cinematic arts. More films were produced and they became an important part of Finnish society. The culmination of this development came soon after the silent era, around the 1940s and 1950s, when three major studios were producing films and competing for the market. When society changed in the 1960s, partly because of political trends and partly because of new forms of entertainment, like television, the appeal of films was threatened, practically all studios were closed, and films became political and too artistic for the masses, as commercial production was considered a thing of the past and distasteful. Few filmmakers were opposed to this development, and kept producing popular films that were bashed by the critics but loved by the people.