Måns Månsson - Miikko Oikkonen on the series Estonia and working with 5,000 crew members

As we catch up with Månsson and Oikkonen after the world premiere in Toronto of the eight-part series, the two creators express a big sigh of relief. “It was great to see the reactions from the audience in Toronto who knew nothing about the MS Estonia disaster and still grasped the story, told from three perspectives - the Finnish, Swedish and Estonian points of view, ie the ones from the three nations involved in the tragedy” said Oikkonen, established screenwriter and chief visual at Fisher King, producers of Estonia.

“The unique three country-perspective which reflects the real-life involvement of Sweden, Finland, Estonia in the maritime tragedy and investigation that followed, is what convinced me in the first place to board the project,” admitted Månsson. The latter who was 12 where the tragedy happened said he had always thought the sinking of the MS Estonia was a Swedish affair. “It’s only when I read Miikko’s script that I understood it was a multi-national disaster, shared with Finland and Estonia. It was an eye-opener.”

“In many ways”, continues the director, “the three-point perspective also mimics the production itself and how we worked. It was crucial for all of us involved in the show to take care of the Finnish, Swedish and Estonian viewers as the tragedy is part of each nation’s collective trauma,” underlined Månsson who served as second unit director on Chernobyl.

Indeed almost 30 years after the deadliest maritime disasters in European history - which occurred in September 1994 in the Baltic Sea - no one has yet been held accountable for the tragedy which claimed the lives of 852 people, despite a lengthy investigation from a committee set up by the three nations involved.

The uncovering of more than 14,000 documents from the official Joint Accident Investigation Committee (JAIC) set up by Finland, Sweden and Estonia and released by the Finnish national archives in 2019, was actually the starting point for the series, as explained by Oikkonen.

“When I put my hands on the material from the investigation, I felt this could be very interesting to explore in a series, much more than the disaster itself. Then after speaking to colleagues in Sweden and Estonia and realising I knew nothing about how the flow of events had unfolded in those countries, I felt that wider scope and three-point perspective was THE way to approach the story.”

Oikkonen then pitched the idea to MTV3 with Fisher King’s executive producer Matti Halonen. “We pitched a loose idea, saying we would focus on the investigation and honour the families of the victims. MTV liked it and very quickly TV4 joined in.”

The eight-part series ended up as a €15m European collaboration spearheaded by Beta Film’s Finnish label Fisher King, involving co-producers Kärn Film from Sweden, Amrion Production from Estonia, Panache Productions & La Compagnie Cinematographique from Belgium and Germany’s Beta Film who holds international distribution rights. The project was pre-bought by Germany’s Prosieben and received top-up financing from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Månsson feels it would have been hard for a single public broadcaster to tackle such a controversial story where ultimately no one was blamed. “It would have been too sensitive, too close to home for a sole Swedish broadcaster to bring it to the screens. But MTV and TV4 had a healthy distance from the government’s mess that was created at the time.“

Inevitably, some ethical issues surrounding the unsolved crime investigation had to be raised. “There have been many conspiracy theories about the disaster, therefore we knew from the beginning we had to build our story on solid facts and use official documents from Sweden, Finland and Estonia,” the writer/creator explained.

Although some new elements about the sinking of MS Estonia were uncovered by Swedish journalist Henrik Evertsson and analyst Linus Andersson, behind the 2020 Discovery+ Swedish documentary Estonia – The find that changes everything, Oikkonen said the documentary mostly corroborated the material they already had. “In any case in our dramatises version, our focal point is the investigation team that we follow over three years,” he pointed out.

For Oikkonen, another key narrative decision was to build the structure of the storyline outside in, ie from the points of view of outside witnesses, such as the Finnish rescuer (played by Pelle Heikkilä) or the Swedish female priest (Cecilia Milocco) to then zoom in on the fatal accident. “Creating the character of the rookie guy Henri Petonen (played by Jussi Nikkilä) who stayed on the investigation committee to the end and wrote the final report was also a key narrative element,” says the creator.

Besides a team of researchers/historians from Finland, Sweden and Estonia, the writers’ room around Oikkonen included Tuomas Hakola, Olli Suitiala, Sanna Reinumägi from Finland, Andris Feldmanis, Livia Ulman from Estonia and Henrik Engström from Sweden.

Logistically and artistically, putting together the mammoth project shot between five countries-Finland, Estonia, Belgium at Lites Studios where the underwater stages were used for the sinking of the ship, Turkey where a roller ship was dressed up as the MS Estonia, and in the UK where DNEG handled some VFX works, was a huge endeavour, admitted Månsson.

“I was shocked to learn recently that we had about 5,000 crew members across the five countries. But we did manage to create a beautiful filming bubble. And in the end, it’s still about the camera, the actors and creating that magic moment. Our DoP J-P Passi did a brilliant job and so did the cast”, said Månsson who shared the directing duties with Juuso Syrjä (Bordertown).

For Månsson, a crucial artistic decision was when the creatives agreed to start filming the most technically challenging scenes first. “We applied a kind of mission impossible mode by starting the shooting with the disaster scenes in the water tank, the helicopter and raft rescue operation. When you work on sets created for tilting, with angles, degrees, movement, it’s totally mad, much more complicated than what I experienced on Chernobyl,” he acknowledged.

“Yes having Måns direct first the water scenes, was crucial,” added Oikkonen. “Then J-P Passi and our amazing production designer Liv Ask [22 July, The Playlist, Top Dog] helped visualise those scenes. It immediately lifted the show and dictated the style for the rest of the series.”

Now that Estonia has reached its screen destination in Finland and Sweden, Månsson said he will pause, before taking on a new filmic challenge. “We have been literally a full year in post-production. That was a record for me”, said the director, also known for the series Snabba Cash, Dough, the arthouse films The Yard and The Real Estate.

“And for me as well it’s been a record”, said Oikkonen, working in parallel on the second season of the Finnish thriller Helsinki Syndrome produced again by Fisher King for Yle.

Both Estonia and Helsinki Syndrome are being offered by Beta Film to global buyers at the upcoming MIPCOM market in Cannes.

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