Television | Why are thirty-somethings so performance-oriented? Ronja Salmi decided to ask her peers

Blue Tuominen dreams of a career as a dancer, Sophie Merone aims to become a singer. Anniina Puttonen seeks the cure for the seventh time. Jesse Viljanen has grown up in the poverty of the depression years, and he is determined that his family will not have to experience the same.

They all have clear goals in life, but they are already getting older. People in their thirties have experienced disappointments, and realism penetrates their consciousness. How about dreams then? Can a goal turn into an obsession?

Supplier Ronja Salmi has gathered his peers in his new program. He was interested in the focus on performance, which is also a familiar trait to him. Salmi has aspired to become a journalist already as a teenager, and his career has progressed steadily.

He was 24 years old when he was appointed program director of the Helsinki Book Fair in 2018, and four years passed. Around the same time, Salme’s documentary series was completed What are you thinking, Ronja Salmi? In it, Salmi talked with people about sensitive and difficult topics such as loneliness and sex.

In the new With confidence Ronja Salmi in his series, he does not so much strive for courage, but for a certain kind of everydayness, mundaneness. It can already be seen in the casting, i.e. the selection of the interviewees, which Salmi was largely responsible for himself.

“I didn’t want this to be a freak circus, I was looking for ordinary and sane people, even if they have a certain audacity. We are always on the edge. There is enough torque but not too much,” Salmi describes the choices.

One of Salme’s old friends is also there, Johanna Vainio i.e. Jonttu, who has dedicated his life to horses and riding, but his dreams were dashed when he fell off the horse’s back and broke his spine.

The goal of one interviewee has been fulfilled. Runner Samuli Samuelsson knows how it feels when the Finnish 100 meter record is broken. Does it still leave you feeling empty?

Strait is the screenwriter of the series, but also bears responsibility for the whole. The director is Jani Pyylampi.

Salmi’s personality is strongly present, but he does not deny his own career path and achievements.

“In everything I do, I always think about how much I tell about myself, what is the right amount. It is expected, but there will also be criticism that why am I telling you. There is a contradiction here. I think I can be a side plot, and I’m willing to share if it gets people going.”

The series follows Salme’s beginning pregnancy, and she has her reasons for it.

“I started filming the diary, but I didn’t tell the working group about the pregnancy at first. It then became one of the story lines, when it was assumed that the pregnancy can be seen in the pictures as well.”

In Salmi’s opinion, pregnancy fits the series thematically.

“The question of having children and the future in general concerns people in their thirties. What are you ready to do today for the future, so that tomorrow would be different?”

New with the series, Salmi has generally been looking for her own role as a journalist.

“I go along, but I don’t talk about it. I point out contradictions, but gently.”

The episodes are longer than usual this time. Often, the episodes of documentary series are half an hour long, but now they have been stretched to three quarters. That leaves more time for “hanging out”, quiet moments and seemingly small damages. One of Salmi’s favorite scenes is seen in the third episode, where she is fishing with Jesse.

“That’s when you really forgot about the cameras around. Those moments motivate me to do this work.”

Next Salmi says that he does audio, but his appreciation for TV work – or whatever it’s called now – has remained the same over the years.

“The power of TV is in sharing and interacting together. The program can open the door, and people send me their own stories.”

With the trust of Ronja Salmi, Yle Areena and TV2 Thu 14.9. at 21:00.