Ice hockey perhaps. Ski jumping yes. Middle and long distance running certainly (who can forget Lasse Viren or Paavo Nurmi?) Skating had Kiira Korpi and football had Jari Litmanen. But cricket? No. This is not a sport in which the Finns have hitherto displayed any signs of excellence. Nonetheless, the new feature length doc project Finnish Bears promises to do for Finnish batting, bowling and fielding what Cool Runnings once did for tobogganing in Jamaica.
The film (an Observer+ project in the Nordisk Panorama this week) is produced by Juho Harjula for production outfit Cameron Oy and directed by Otso Alanko. It tells the story of the Finnish national cricket team as they prepare for a vital World Cup qualifying tournament.
Producer Harjula remembers his surprise when, four or five years ago, he was told by a former colleague that there was indeed a national cricket team. “Finland and cricket…they don’t sound a very promising combination,” he remembers his initial scepticism.
“He kind of pitched to me as ‘you guys should come and see what it is because it is something surreal because…there are actually no Finns in the Finnish national team.’” (Many ex-pats from cricket playing countries were bolstering the numbers.)
Neither producer nor director knew much about cricket beyond the fact that it was a “huge sport” in India and England (“And of course in the Commonwealth countries.”) Nonetheless, they began filming in 2018.
It turned out that, by 2022, the Finnish cricket team, despite being billed as one of the worst in the world, wasn’t that bad. They actually won four games in the qualifying tournament.
“They won four games and lost only one game, to Italy, and Italy won the whole tournament,” director Alanko explains how the Finns ended up being stumped anyway – in spite of their heroics. “They’re a lot better team than when we started the project but unfortunately we don’t have that kind of Cinderella story.”
Four years ago, Alanko remembers, even though they were the national team, the players involved didn’t take the competition too seriously. They liked to use matches an excuse to “meet up and have some beers.” That attitude has now been knocked for six.
As one of the film’s star players, Van, puts it on camera, the team was determined to show the rest of Finland that they are “not just a laughing stock.” Another player, Amjad, meanwhile, makes it clear that his teammates “mean the world” to him. He is a Pakistani refugee. During the time the documentary was being shot, he finally secured his Finnish passport. Pride in wearing the badge has grown for him and everyone else – and so has performance levels.
The Finnish Film Foundation is already aboard the project. The filmmakers are coming to Malmö hoping to secure international distribution.
“We know that there is potential and that people want to see the Bears story. That is something we have been pushing,” says Harjula.
The project had a first innings last year in the Doc Forward workshop for emerging Nordic documentary producers and directors. Major players have been circling the film.
Cricket is reckoned to be one of the biggest sports in the world and everybody loves an underdog story. On that basis alone, there should be interest.
It helps that Alanko already has a strong record making sports-based docs. His 2019 film Crossing Tracks, was about the relationship between a cross country skier and his coach – who also happened to be his father.
Finnish Bears may superficially seem to be a tongue-in-cheek project about a team famous for being bad. “Of course, that is only the frame for the story. There are those individuals and those human stories which are really touching,” the director says. He believes the film is touching on “universal themes” which should have resonance even for Finnish and international viewers who don’t know one end of a cricket bat from the other. The human factor here is what matters most.
Finland currently has around 200 registered players from which to draw the national team. There are only two official cricket pitches. The sport remains totally amateur. Players have families and have to beg their loved ones for time off to go and play for the Bears in the summer when most families are going on holiday. It’s therefore unlikely the country will be able to complete with superpowers like India and Australia any time soon. However, there are now school programmes and a national drive is underway to boost the sport’s profile.
The filmmakers are looking for a sales agent. They are hoping the film will have a cinema life as well as one on TV. Whatever the case, the documentary is bound to draw further attention to the sport.
Are the producer and director now diehard cricket fans? They respond in equivocal fashion. No, they probably wouldn’t want to watch every minute of a five-day Test match. However, they do now appreciate many aspects and nuances of the sport.
“I fell in love with cricket. It’s a really interesting game,” Alanko volunteers. “Every kind of ball is important. You can drop a catch or you can make ‘six.’ For me, the T20 format is the best format because it’s only like three hours and is a bit like an NFL football game or a little longer version of a Premier League game. Maybe I am not a big fan of Test matches…”
“I do kind of understand it better,” Harjula says of what he has learned. A few years ago, he was taken to an Indian IPL game in Mumbai and didn’t have a clue what was going on. Now, he says, he understands “every pitch and every ball.”
