Remote but Connected : Lapland as a Scene of Transnational Crime in Ivalo

Abstract

Set in a small town in the north of Finland, the crime TV series Ivalo (Arctic Circle, Finland, 2018) exemplifies the fascination of Nordic Noir with ‘remote’ locations as scenes of transnational crime. The plot seems to forebode the corona pandemic, portraying the spread of a life-threatening ‘Yemenite virus’ developed as a biological weapon from the Balkans to Lapland. In this article, I analyze how the virus narrative allows the series to bring new perspectives on Nordic Noir. The narrative emphasizes international connections while creating representations of places that can be characterized as both translocal (Greiner and Sakdapolrak 2013) and glocal (Robertson 2012). Because of its far northern location, the series can be described as an example of Arctic Noir. However, Ivalo breaks with traditional representations of both Lapland and the Russian border in Finnish audiovisual culture, striving towards a new cosmopolitan imagination.