The Kidnapping of a President

On 14 October 1930, Finnish right-wing extremists abducted the nation’s first president. But things definitely did not go as planned. A comedy of dark laughter based on a historical incident – that offers plenty of food for thought about our unhinged times.

On 14 October 1930, around 9.00 in the morning, activists of Finland’s right-wing extremist Lapua Movement abducted the nation’s first president, Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, and his wife, Ester. It sounds like the premise for a taut political thriller – but Samuli Valkama’s The Kidnapping of a President is a comedy, befitting the case’s bizarre reality that saw the kidnappers getting so overwhelmed by the ever more confusing situation that… things went definitely not as planned. As a result, a Swedish newspaper called their neighbours a “Banana republic”, like Mexico, which, per anecdote, saw the North American nation’s ambassador to Finland vehemently protest saying that Mexico is a civilised nation.

Valkama plays it all pretty straight-faced, letting the borderline farcical facts do the talking, seeing to a kind of humour rarely enjoyed since the heydays of Czech comedy in the 1960s where daily life trickled bleak truths whenever poked, sometimes gently, sometimes firmly. And as all great art shows: Only the local carries universal meaning, with The Kidnapping of a President offering food for thoughts galore about our unhinged times.

– Olaf Möller