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Topic Studios produces award-winning film, TV & podcasts, supporting creators at the forefront of culture.Learn More

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Arctic Circle

FinlandDramaTV-MA1 Season | 10 Episodes

Set in the unforgiving polar region, amidst the icy landscapes of Finnish Lapland. After Nina Kautsalo, a Finnish police officer, finds a dying prostitute in an old cabin in the wilderness,

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10 Episodes

Nina Kautsalo is police officer and a single mother in her hometown of Ivalo in Finnish Lapland. With her partner she finds an unconscious woman held captive in a farm cellar. She is revealed to be a Russian sex worker. In Helsinki, the Ivalo case comes to the attention of the European Center of Disease Control and its German virologist Thomas Lorenz. The blood sample from the abducted woman contains an unknown pathogen, which only he is able to recognize: it’s a rare lethal virus.

Raunola’s snowmobile is found at the bottom of the river, but the man himself is still missing. Stenius meets Nina and orders Nina to assist Thomas with the virus investigation. Nina is frustrated with being pushed out of the murder investigation. Pharmaceutical company owner and millionaire Marcus Eiben is informed by his associate that the Yemeni virus has been detected in Finnish Lapland. They decide to send security advisor Drako to Ivalo to assess the situation.

At the Ivalo police station, Raunola has his gun pointed at Nina. But then he surprisingly surrenders. Under interrogation Raunola requests police protection before clamming up. Nina persuades Raunola to talk by offering him the chance to go to Southern Finland for a mental health assessment. This promise gets Raunola to confess the murders of Reidar and the two sex workers.

Nina and Thomas comb through the list of Marita’s sexual partners and focus in on a peculiarity in the year 2012, which they are intent to ask her about. Meanwhile, in Russia, Raunola is captured by the mysterious Maxim who violently interrogates him.

Irina is refusing to speak to anyone but Nina. Nina uses it to force Stenius to get her involved in the crime investigation. Irina opens up about her experiences as oligarchs’ party girl in Murmansk, and about how she and three other girls were secretly taken to Finland first to be used as sex slaves and then to be killed. Irina identifies Hamari and Reidar, but not Raunola. She also ID’s Cevikovic, but she becomes terrified of him and says there’s no way the police can protect her from him.

Stenius and Nikander find Evgenya frozen dead. Nina wakes up in Thomas’s hotel room. She finds out Evgenya’s faith. Stenius and Nikander transport the women found on Esko’s truck back to Russia. Nikander questions Esko but is unable to get anything new out of him. Ylikorpi suspects Esko wasn’t in fact aware the two women were contained in his truck. On the local paper, Marita is rumored to be the carrier of the lethal “sex virus”.

A man named Marcus contacts Thomas and Nina to describe his reason for seeking revenge on Cevikovic. The incident he describes, which occurred during The Bosnian War, gives them insight into not only the virus but also Cevikovic’s warped intentions. The two partners grow closer as they investigate this scandalous case but the mystery of this virus still hangs in the air.

Marcus’s entire team has gathered to go over the operation step-by-step. Nina informs the group they’ve only got a very short window of time to complete the operation. The team leaves for Murmansk on snowmobiles. At the health clinic, Venla wakes up, finding herself quarantined behind Plexiglas. Elina is able to get beside Venla’s bed to comfort her; The strike team enter Russia and has to stop to rest and wait for the daylight. Thomas contemplates his family relationship with Nina.

Nina has it out with Raunola in a back-and-forth battle in which we are not sure who will survive. Meanwhile, Marcus reveals his reasons for wanting to find Cevikovic and all roads lead to the Bosnian war and a group of Serb soldiers who were given the virus… and an unspeakably horrific mission. All questions will be answered in this thrilling, dramatic and often shocking season finale.

Credits

Creators

Olli Haikka, Petja Peltomaa, Joona Tena

Cast

Iina Kuustonen, Pihla Viitala, Janne Kataja, Venla Ronkainen, Lazar Cevikovic, Susanna Haavisto, Maximilian Bruckner

Director

Hannu Salonen

Writers

Jon Alti Jonasson, Joona Tena

Producers

Jarkko Hentula, Olli Haikka

Executive Producers

Moritz Polter, Milla Bruneau

Cinematographer

Mikael Gustafsson

Editor

Kimmo Tiainen