Netflix will handle global distribution on the film outside Finland, where new local distributor Aurora Studios will handle the cinema release and Yle, the TV premiere.

Building on the global branding of the hit crime series Bordertown, Fisher King CEO Matti Halonen has gathered the same creative team consisting of writers Mikko Oikkonen and Antti Pesonen, as well as director Juuso Syrjä.

Ville Virtanen reprises his role as investigator Kari Sorjonen, Anu Sinisalo as Lena Jaakkola and Sampo Sarkola as Sorjonen’s arche enemy Lasse Maasalo.

The story unfolds as a mural of Lasse Maasalo is found, painted in blood, at a train station. Beneath the mural is written: ”Making the World a Better Place”. The same message is found on a social media voting contest. When three of the most-voted people disappear, acclaimed investigator Kari Sorjonen is asked to come back to work. He is the only one who can solve the society-shaking hate crime, but only if he manages to get his own mind together.

Filming is set to start in and around Helsinki in October, with all Covid-19 health safety protocols in place. The film is produced by Matti Halonen and Johannes Lassila for Beta Film’s co-owned Fisher King, in association with Aurora Studios, Finnish broadcaster Yle, Netflix, Business Finland and the Finnish Film Foundation.

Halonen said: “Bordertown is a big audience movie, and Aurora Studios is going for a nationwide theatrical release in autumn 2021. It is also truly excellent that we have signed a worldwide distribution agreement with Netflix which means that probably for the first time ever, a Finnish-language film will be shown all over the world, from US to Australia.”

Antti Toiviainen, CEO of Aurora Studios added: ”We are extremely excited to launch to movie theatres the award-winning and critically acclaimed Bordertown, which has been one of the top Nordic noir IPs.”

First broadcast on Yle in 2016, the series co-produced by Federation Entertainment garnered more than 1 million average viewers. Season 2 premiered in October 2018 and season 3 in December 2019. Netflix acquired rights to the three seasons.