‘Transport’ series makes all the right connections

Flemish powerhouse producer Helen Perquy wasn’t convinced she wanted to do an international co-production – until the moment she met up with some strong Finnish women.

If you talk with Belgian producer Helen Perquy about filmmaking, she doesn’t hide what she really cares about; she’s a passionate advocate for small countries, real equality, authenticity – and for co-producing fiction series in Finland. This last is the direct result of her partnering up with Finland’s Tekele Productions to make the new hit series ‘Transport, which was written, directed, produced, and starred in by women.

Perquy has a disarming way of cutting right to the heart of things: “The company I joined & co-own with showrunner Philippe De Schepper, jonnydepony, does not usually do co-productions, but this time I was introduced to Finnish producer Miia Haavisto (’Tom of Finland’, ‘The Unknown Soldier’), and in our business, it’s still pretty rare to meet female producers who own their own business. So while we are quite different, we also both immediately felt that we knew exactly what we wanted to do together.”

Emmi Parviainen and Geert Van Rampelberg act in new series Transport that delves into the criminal activity of horsemeat trafficking and money laundering in Europe. Photographer Maarten De Bouw 

Perquy explains their first meeting this way: “Miia pointed out to me that she has a lot of experience in feature films, and that I produced & financed successful series. Plus, I loved the theme of Transport immediately. Philippe found the story, I liked the theme and the female power behind it!"

I loved that it had a female writer and director – and the fact that there were three really strong female characters. It all made sense – everything that we read made sense. Put simply, I could not find any reason why not to co-produce it. It is hard to find good stories lead by strong women in front of and behind the camera. ”

Small countries, high standards

Another reason Perquy thinks her teaming up with a Finnish company worked so well was certain similarities she noticed between Finland and her own Belgian culture. “What I love about the Finnish actors in Transport, and the way – in my experience – Finns tend to think and work, is that Finns are a rather small culture – as are we Flemish. And I think Finns have very strong characters. It’s not that Finns live on an island, but in a way, Finland is its own separate entity. There’s a pride in Finns about their Finnish character – and you feel it in the language, in the scripts, in the acting. And from a Belgian perspective – we love that! It brings something very unique to a series like Transport. It has authenticity without looking for an authenticity. So, our approach is never to ask ‘What do we need to please the audience?’ We just aim to make a good story. In Finland, that feeling of authenticity is right on the surface. What I discovered is that the Finnish beating heart carries a palpable authenticity.”

Putting it all together – Finnish style

With regard to crafting Transport, Helen Perquy says, “It was definitely a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, with lots of little pieces that to some degree require the viewer to do the work of putting them together – the audience will have to do part of the work, because the characters of the series all discover & track different pieces of the puzzle."

While Perquy is quick to say that having produced just one series with Finns, she’s not in a position to generalize about what it’s like to do co-productions in Finland, but can only emphasize that, “For us, it was a very positive experience – very, very cut-to-the-chase, very efficient, and also humble in a way. The quality of acting, both in Transport and in some other Finnish productions I’ve seen, is of an extremely high quality. What I think is different from the series or films made in many bigger countries is the efficiency factor. The Flemish and the Finns don’t put production values first. We put the story and the acting first. The entire way of working is quite efficient and professional, because we smaller countries simply need to be. Because we don’t have the big budgets, so in Finland – as in Flanders – we need to really get the very most out of the budgets and financing. So, Finns go for the cinematic moment not so much in the big shots, but in the intimate, character-driven moments. That is what Finnish filmmakers are really good at.”

Eight-part series Transport is a story about ordinary people who all have their skin in the game. Photographer Maarten De Bouw 

About those strong Finnish women…

When asked to saying a bit more about her admiration for Finns – and for Finnish women in particular – Perquy was even willing to spill a little tea: “When I first pitched the Transport series to a Flemish broadcaster, they said the female roles were too masculine, too “cold” – and I was rather shocked by this remark! I did manage to sell it to another broadcaster in my country, but that earlier remark underlines the fact that it is important female writers and directors step up. In all countries. We women are still supposed to be emotional first. Where it is my conviction that we are all emotional beings, men and women, but we women often connect through emotions. It is the contrary of weakness however. It is a strength. And we can combine it with being strong, professional, competitive and clever. So to meet Miia – and also her CEO at Tekele, Tia Talli – it was so refreshing to meet strong female leaders. But for them as Finns it was quite normal. In fact, when I told them the story of how Transport had been criticized for having ‘cold, masculine’ women roles, Mia and Tia responded, ‘Did they really SAY that to you?’. Well, they did. And guess what. It only made jonnydepony more convinced to bring Transport to the screen. The collaboration with Tekele was smooth, we worked as a team, and combined talent from Finland with our Flemish talent (music, opening credits, etc.) and are proud to have been part of this relevant story. We treasure this coproduction, and wish Tekele all the success they deserve."