As wars rage around the world and global stability moves further and further from the realm of reality, the idea of escapism feels as real as ever. Director Yinka Acte has long understood the importance of having a relief valve in times of great sociopolitical hardship, and in Soap Fever he set out to explore this concept by reimagining a very specific phenomenon. During the Finnish economic downturn in the early 1990s, the American daytime series “The Bold and the Beautiful” became incredibly popular in Finland.
In an interview with Variety ahead of the film’s premiere at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which also premiered The Golden Land in 2022, Akte said he had been thinking about the television phenomenon for years. After returning to her home country after the birth of her first son, she wanted to find out what kind of soil she grew up in, so she finally decided to explore the story on screen.
“Originally, I thought it would be a playful, light, nostalgic piece exploring a strange cultural phenomenon: how a small, recession-hit Scandinavian country fell in love with a pink, glossy American soap opera,” she continues. “But once I started digging deeper, I realized that this wasn’t just a question of kitschy fandom. It was a question of survival. The show came out during Finland’s worst economic crisis after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when people lost jobs, homes and hope. We felt the contrast between national despair and seductive escapism was cinematically powerful.”
The director immersed himself in research to understand the hysteria of the 1990s, viewing old news reports, talk shows, and footage of an American actor on a highly popular visit to Finland. But the “real center” of her research appeared in the form of a real-life ordinary fan. “I wanted people who grew up with the show and whose lives were shaped by that era in the same way mine was,” she says, recalling how she scoured online forums and relied on word of mouth to find her subjects. “I was looking for someone who could tell their story in a compelling way, conveying both the humor and the touch of pain typical of that era in Finland.”
Akte was keen to interview some of the original cast of The Bold and the Beautiful, but financial constraints associated with the film’s low budget made filming outside Finland impossible. What started as an obstacle ultimately inspired the director’s creativity to instead focus on the people who cared, and still care, about the actors. “This is a collective story of us Finns and our recovery from collective trauma,” the filmmaker said, adding that some of the stars are aware of the film’s production, even though the cast has not yet seen it.
Asked if he thought a similar phenomenon could occur in Finland today, Akte points out that today’s media consumption is “fragmented.” “Algorithms personalize our experiences. Moments of collective monoculture are rare. That said, shared phenomena still exist, but they often occur online, across borders, and without geographical concentration.”
“The intensity may still be possible, but the physical and communal aspects feel like they’re from another era,” she points out. “In today’s polarized world, collective joy like this feels rare. I really miss it.”
“Soap Fever” (provided by Inka Achté)
In a world of remakes and sequels, and in an age where vinyl is proving cooler than digital among younger generations, “Soap Fever” also taps into the timely topic of nostalgia. “There’s probably a yearning for the ’90s and early 2000s right now, perhaps because we’re once again living through economic instability, polarization and geopolitical tensions,” Akte says. “Nostalgia is comforting.”
Still, the director cautions that her film doesn’t depict the ’90s as a “better” time. “For many people, including myself, they were traumatic (for years). It’s not so much a desire to recapture the past, but a sense of connection and a longing for a shared experience. In that sense, this film contributes to a broader cultural reflection on how we deal with uncertainty. But I also hope this film reminds people not to lose each other.”
Akte also emphasizes her desire to destigmatize daytime television and soap operas as “less than” entertainment, especially considering that fans of such media products are often looked down upon or considered childish, especially in popular culture. “I started this project with a certain amount of arrogance, grinning at BB fans. As a teenager, I thought BB fans were unsophisticated, just because the pop culture they liked and the pop culture I was consuming wasn’t as ‘cool’ as I thought. ”
“We often discount certain forms of culture as ‘sleazy,’ but in moments of crisis, people don’t need fame; they need connection,” she says, recalling a time when she realized that the strength of fandom was essentially equal, even if the targets were different. “And while television is free, going to the opera is not. Melodramas can have as much emotional weight as arthouse movies when they become part of someone’s survival story.”
“Soap Fever” is produced by Napafilms Oy in association with Story AB. Sales will be handled by Raina Film Festival Distribution.
