The kidnapping of Finland's first president as a dark, comical farce. On 14 October 1930, Finnish right-wing extremists kidnapped the country's first president. But things did not go according to plan... A comedy with black humour, based on a historical event, which gives us much food for thought about our turbulent times.
On 14 October 1930, at around 9 a.m., activists from the Finnish right-wing extremist Lapua Movement kidnapped the country's first president, Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, and his wife Ester. It sounds like the premise for a thrilling political thriller, but Samuli Valkama's The Kidnapping of a President is a comedy, befitting the bizarre reality of the case, in which the kidnappers became so overwhelmed by the increasingly confusing situation that... things definitely did not go according to plan. As a result, a Swedish newspaper called their neighbours a ‘banana republic’, just like Mexico, which, according to anecdotal evidence, led to a fierce protest from the North American ambassador to Finland, who said that Mexico is a civilised country.
Valkama plays it all quite seriously, letting the almost absurd facts speak for themselves and providing a kind of humour that has rarely been seen since the heyday of Czech comedy in the 1960s, when everyday life revealed grim truths when prodded, sometimes gently, sometimes forcefully. And as all great art shows, only the local has universal meaning, and The Kidnapping of a President offers plenty of food for thought about our troubled times.
