Munich, 16 February 2022. Even before its national premiere, the Finnish thriller series Helsinki Syndrome by BORDERTOWN creators Mikko Oikkonen and Juuso Syrjä has been sold by Beta throughout Scandinavia, with deals closed with Denmark’s national broadcaster DR, NRK for Norway, and SVT in Sweden. Beta also struck a deal with pubcaster NPO in the Netherlands, while numerous negations with broadcasters throughout the world are still ongoing.

The captivating drama Helsinki Syndrome (8x1h), a modern “Robin Hood”-like series, circles around Elias Karo (Peter Franzén), who takes four renowned journalists at their newspaper’s Helsinki headquarters hostage. For several years, Karo has been planning to reveal the crimes committed by banking officials and the government against his family. Now, he forces the journalists to expose the two bank officials and a district court judge, who destroyed the reputation of Elias’ family, caused them to lose everything and even the suicide of his father.

Lead by Finnish star Peter Franzén (Vikings, The Wheel of Time), screenplay credits go to Mikko Oikkonen. The series is directed by Juuso Syrjä. Both creators currently joined forces with award-winning Swedish director Måns Månsson (Snabba Cash, Chernobyl) on the visually stunning drama Estonia (8x45’).

Helsinki Syndrome is produced by Fisher King in coproduction with Panache Productions, YLE, NDR (commissioning editor: Sabine Holtgreve) and ARTE (commissioning editor: Uta Cappel), with the support of Business Finland. It is the first joint venture by Beta and Finland’s leading production house Fisher King, and one of only a few Finnish productions to secure coproduction with French-German broadcaster ARTE.

Fisher King (Nymphs; Bordertown) is part of the Beta Nordic Studio group (BNS), the umbrella organization for Beta’s production activities in Nordics since 2019. BNS has grown with the recent acquisition of a major stake in Sweden’s production company Unlimited Stories (Missing People).