Hella W

INTELLIGENCE SERVICE MI6 LONDON 1929

We believe Mrs. Wuolijoki is actively working for the NKVD.

The Russians call her the Poet.

We also heard she's an operative for Germany, or Japan.

Yesterday she visited the Medea office in Helsinki.

What is it?

A front set up by her sister Salme Dutt, a communist spy.

SECURITY SERVICE NKVD MOSCOW 1929

Lady Muriel Paget, a British agent and a guest at Wuolijoki's home.

The British businessman she helped enter the country.

Obvious connections with MI6.

I'm sorry. We have reason to believe..

that Mrs. Wuolijoki works for the British.

FINNISH STATE POLICE HELSINKI 1929

Moscow and London give us conflicting information.

We have to know who that woman is spying for!

God only knows. Lately, she's been focusing on her business.

Buying sawmills and petrol stations, importing Russian films to Finland.

Raivio, I want everything we have on Wuolijoki.

Virtanen!

The lady seems to travel a lot. We need the lady for questioning.

I could've become the leader of Turkestan..

as soon as I'd negotiated loans for their coffee and cotton plantations.

I would've had all the power, even military power. I told them no.

I told them thank you, but no thank you.

I am first and foremost a businesswoman.

My mother was the most successful businesswoman in Helsinki.

She was able to supply anything.

After the war, everything sold.

Commissar Krasin has already appointed me.

I would've had all the power, including military power.

My father.

The esteemed Member of Parliament, lawyer, journalist, Master of Arts.

- Where's my wife? - She's with guests, sir.

- I'm not so drunk that you need to beat me! - No.

Except all week, and on Sunday and Monday.

You told people I was in a delirium and you'd called the police.

What can one do when someone's raging like an animal?

No one has ever called me an animal, and neither will you again.

I made you a woman, Ella Murrik!

I dreamed of you not so long ago.

I cried and ranted, because I was afraid you'd leave me.

We agreed to build our life together, but you deceived me.

I could leave, without any scandal or revenge.

Go on my way, and no one would notice! For a while.

Me, ten years old.

I would've become a man with so little.

But not in the way you thought.

I bought the Marlebäck mansion, in litti.

- We'll use these only on Sundays. - No, we'll eat from them every day.

Your father and I are getting a divorce.

- Do you understand? - Yes.

- Good. - I read it in the paper four weeks ago.

Annual exports rose to 20,000 standards.

How did you get a loan from the Bank of England?

I'm a good talker.

The state police were watching my mother-

because of her connections with the Soviet Union.

10 years later

Mother was always away on business..

all around Europe and the Soviet Union.

I grew up alone in the mansion.

- What are you clattering here for? - I got hungry at the sawmill.

You made Jussi pick you up in the middle of the night.

Jussi didn't complain. Give me some milk, Vappu.

- No one dares complain. - Why not? I'm a democratic person.

You know that I abide by a socialist world view.

Next year, I'll have 2,400 workers at the sawmill.

- Do you pay Jussi a salary? - I educated him.

I paid for his books and gave him money whenever he needed it.

Klaara, does Hella pay you a salary?

I taught Klaara to be independent.

I have 8-hour working days, collective supervisors, open books.

We're like one big family. I've earned all I've got.

Don't eat so much, you'll become shapeless.

Did I raise you to talk to your mother like that?

You didn't raise me. Fräulein raised me.

110,000 logs came from Russia, but they have a seller's market.

We'll see once the invoice arrives. The bank trusts me.

Have you applied for an extension on the fee payments?

- What's the rush? - We haven't paid them for two years.

No, we haven't.

The bank wants us to at least pay the interest.

Let them show up at my door. And why did they contact you?

You ignore them, even though you owe millions.

- That's right. - You seem to follow your own rules, Madam.

0ctober 29, 1929. Black Tuesday.

The New York Stock Exchange is in a panic.

Frantic investors have scrambled to unload their stocks.

Everyone wants to sell, no one wants to buy.

Suddenly the most gilt-edged securities are valueless.

The stock market crash has come, and the Great Depression...

Ask the bank for an extension on the interest payment.

- I already did, a few months ago. - That was then. Ask again.

Take these to the pawn shop, but tell them not to sell them yet.

You should pawn this too.

Not that. It's a keepsake.

It's just an object. You should let go.

- You should sell Marlebäck. - Never.

Well, start writing then.

White Finland wouldn't dare produce a play by Hella Wuolijoki.

Mother decided to write under a pen name.

First, she was Felix Tuli. Then, Juhani Tervapää.

Her first play had been published 20 years earlier..

but it was banned in Helsinki and Tallinn.

The pen name allowed her to avoid censorship and prejudice.

We sent plays to publishers and theatres, here and there.

They were rejected everywhere.

We sent one to the most famous director in the country..

Eino Salmelainen.

Juhani Tervapää, "Any objections?"

The writer and the play have original names.

The name of the play is bad, but the text is brilliant.

With a new playwright, we won't get in trouble with the union.

It's hard to find props in these financial times.

I'm happy to help fledgling writers.

Your assistant stage manager told me..

that I'll get my furniture back soon.

"The Women of Niskavuori" won't run very long..

even though it's directed by Eino Salmelainen.

"THE WOMEN OF NISKAVUORI" PREMIERE 1936

A marvellous performance. Congratulations, Mrs. Wuolijoki.

Well, did they slate it?

This is sheer praise. "The Women of Niskavuori".

The judge takes out a brandy bottle.

"Leave the girl be. Her story is sad in this time of unemployment. "

"Even cigarette factories are firing people, not to mention..."

One moment!

"It's sad that Hulda is beyond redemption as a citizen."

"Women of the streets don't vote."

"Hulda is so pretty that it's unlikely she'll be rescued."

- Can I take a cigarette break? - Don't you like that line, Firinä?

I do, but I'd also like a cigarette and some coffee.

I'll have Hulda make coffee for the gentlemen.

That's a good idea, isn't it, Firinä?

She doesn't hear or listen. I wonder if her heart's in this.

They won't accept me as a member of the playwright's union.

Why not?

- They don't tell why. - It's political.

- I wouldn't feel bad. - I'm not fit to be a Finn.

Or an author in this country.

Valued plays run at the National Theatre..

and my plays under an alias at the People's Theatre, with my furniture.

Give me a cigarette, Vappu.

I'll have Hulda smoke in the final scene.

Smoke cigarettes and drink cocktails. What do you think?

THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER

- What a nice-looking girl. - A real country girl.

Sitting there with her plywood box.

I can tell she's from our part of the country.

I am, and I recognise you, Mr. Ali-Lehtonen.

- So you are from Sääksmäki! - Yes, my name is Hulda Juurakko.

Good evening. I've been eagerly waiting for you.

Are you still going on with that foolishness?

Hulda... a ring isn' too rich a price for you.

Do you honestly believe I want a ring from you? Never!

For seven years, you've been weighing me up with your eyes.

I honestly don't know why I like you so much!

I don' want to become your wife. Do you hear me?

You're struggling in vain. You know that, don' you?

You can' escape it.

Mother's plays were also successful abroad.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

One of the top industrialists in our country..

Mrs. Hella Wuolijoki, is 50 years old today.

Her school of life has been as follows:

Cooking school in Estonia, university in Helsinki...

A congratulatory call from America. Ernestine Evans.

The response has been great. Everybody loves your plays.

- That's lovely to hear. - How can such nonsense succeed?

But they want to know if you're a socialist.

As my agent, you can tell them all the great writers are.

Well, I'll tell them. Happy birthday, Hella.

As we have witnessed..

this "factory" can produce a three-act play in a week.

What's more, the factory has started exporting its products.

The trademark Hella Wuolijoki is already world-famous.

Her fatherland congratulates her.

This is Hella Wuolijoki's idea of a person corrupted by capitalism.

Listen to this line, for example:

"Dear Robert, everything that I have I've paid for in bed."

She portrays a society lady as a street woman and a vampire.

This Hilda Harmaalahti talks and acts like a harlot.

- Goddammit, what stuffy sociology! - Right.

I always try to forget stories that end sadly.

- Do you succeed? - You're too curious.

- What was the story then? - Centuries ago....

Well, what do you think?

You didn't have to kill "Green Gold" at the theatre.

It wasn't your best play.

It's the one dearest to me.

But the critics were unanimous.

- Sentimentality doesn't suit you. - It's not sentimentality but poetry.

Why don't you write about yourself?

As you are. That would be a guaranteed success.

I write world literature.

I can't help it if the audience loves it.

Dear Foreign Minister Tanner. I escaped the bombs to Marlebäck..

and I've been sitting here paralysed for three weeks.

The cows need to be taken care of-