The Finnish director who hadn’t filmed on home turf since the 2017 hit The Unknown Soldier starts filming The Wait in August.

Set in the Finnish archipelago, the film The Wait (Odotus)  is a modern time version of the 1893 classic novel the Vicar’s Wife by 12-time Nobel-Prize nominated author Juhani Aho. The intimate drama is adapted for the screen by Louhimies and actress Inka Kallén (All the Sins, Arctic Circle), who also stars in the leading role. 

The film about love and forgiveness, focuses on Elli a woman who undergoes an enormous emotional battle between sense and passion. A visitor from the past triggers a chain of events that tests the choices of the protagonists. The sense of physical isolation on the Finnish archipelago is amplified by a pandemic soaring around the world.

“Inka approached me with the idea for this film and said she wanted to work with me,” said Louhimies who immediately felt attracted to the story and the possibility to shoot in the breath-taking Finnish archipelago. “I’ve spent so much time there as a child. I love that place,” said the director of the award-wining film Frozen Land to nordicfilmandtvnews.com.

Kallén said she strongly feels for her character, “a strong woman in search for truth in herself and the world around her.”

After the WW2 epic The Unknown Soldier that sold more than one million tickets in Finland in 2017, and the Viaplay thriller Rig 45 season 2, The Wait marks the director’s return to what he calls “concise filmmaking’, with a tight crew and few locations, also to abide to the safety regulations during Covid-19. 

With the characters portraying a sustainable way of living, the film itself will be carbon negative and carried out in collaboration with ‘Compensate”, a Finnish non-profit organisation combating climate change by calculating and compensating the footprint of the production. Costumes and props will also be recycled and cast and crew will be served vegetarian food. 

“I’m super aware of environmental issues, and this [eco-friendly] move is something we all should do,” says Louhimies who feels strongly in particular for the fragile eco-system of the Finnish archipelago. 

 Filming will last 5-6 weeks and delivery is set for early 2021. 

Louhimies is producing with Andrei Alén and Kaarina Gould of Backmann & Hoderoff, with co-financing from C More/MTV and support from the West Finland Film Commission. 
“Finnish TV dramas and films are essential to C More and MTV. We want to be involved in all major domestic film projects, as there is a significant demand for films among viewers,” said Olli Nikunen, acquisition executive at MTV.

The film will premiere on C More after its theatrical release, with a local distributor soon to be announced. Louhimies said he is also in advanced negotiations with an international sales agent.