IN DEVELOPMENT
SHADOW WAR
How do you tell the truth in a world that prefers lies?
When a young Finnish journalist investigates a European tech company with hidden links to the Kremlin, she is targeted by a malicious campaign against her orchestrated by the now infamous Russian ‘internet troll army’. But in order to expose the truth, she must first confront her own dark past, and a toxic relationship with a Russian intelligence agent which she has never fully reconciled.
***
SHADOW WAR is inspired by the true stories in Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro’s 2019 bestseller PUTIN’S TROLLS.
Creators: Inka Rusi, Tanja Rusi and Alex Kendall | Writer: Alex Kendall
Producers: Tanja Rusi, Kathrin Lohmann & Gudny Hummelvoll
FORMAT: 6 x 45 ' Returning series | GENRE: Thriller
STATUS: In development, pilot script & series bible available
SHADOW WAR has been awarded Co-Development Funding by Creative Europe in 2024 and script funding from the Finnish Film Foundation in 2022.
“I appreciate the deeply humane touch and the personal interest the Rusi sisters have in my story and my book Putin's Trolls. I look forward to working with their wonderful team.”
— Jessikka Aro
NORMAL
A millennial graduate student suffers from an adulting crisis as they are thrown in to the Gen Z world while discovering their budding queerness and feelings of desire for the first time.
***
Original idea: Riikka Korhonen | Created by: Riikka Korhonen, Inka Rusi & Onerva Hannula | Head Writer: Onerva Hannula | Director: Inka Rusi | Producer: Katja Jokinen | Producer at YLE: Liisa Palmroth
FORMAT: 6 x 30' Returning series | GENRE: Comedy-drama
STATUS: In development at YLE, Finland’s Public Broadcasting Company
How to survive as a late bloomer millenial queer in a Gen Z world?
— Veera, 30, #confused
SELF MAID
SELF MAID is the untold true story of Sally Salminen, a young woman who writes a prize-winning novel while working as a housemaid in 1930s New York City and becomes famous overnight. She returns to her home in the Åland Islands only to find her plans of settling down to write challenged by the intrusion of the press, the onset of war and falling in love with an idealistic Danish painter.
Based on the “true life Cinderella story” of the forgotten Nobel-prize nominated writer Sally Salminen
***
Creators: Tanja Rusi & Inka Rusi | Writer: Beata Harju
Producers: Tanja Rusi & Katja Jokinen
FORMAT: 8 x 45’ limited series | GENRE: drama, magical realism
STATUS: In development
SELF MAID has been awarded development funding by the Finnish Film Foundation in 2021, The Åland Islands Cultural Fund and Konstamfundet in 2022.
“Inka and Tanja Rusi have shown a true understanding of Sally Salminen and her life journey and are therefore in a strong position to create a series which will transcend boundaries and broaden views, both geographically and intellectually.”
— Ulrika Gustafsson, author of Min Ljusa Stad (2019)
ME, BRENDA
A psychological thriller inspired by the true story of Brenda Spencer, who at 16 became the the United States’ first highly publicised school shooter in 1979.
ME, BRENDA begins as a coming-of-age story of a teenage girl and moves into a dual timeline exploration of the legal and moral ambiguities of the aftermath of the her crime and subsequent trial. Part slow-burning thriller and part procedural, ME, BRENDA dives deep into themes of guilt, crime and punishment, while maintaining suspense and intrigue until the end.
***
Creator: Inka Rusi | Director: Inka Rusi
Producers: Sara Fenton & Tanja Rusi
Script Consultant: Majse Garde Bergman
FORMAT: 6 x 45’ Limited series | GENRE: true crime, thriller, procedural
STATUS: In development
ME, BRENDA was selected for a script development clinic organised by APFI (Audiovisual Producers Finland) in 2021, under the mentorship of Danish Dramaturg and current Creative Producer at TV2 Denmark Majse Garde Bergmann.