Innocence

The story occurs across two timelines. A wedding is being celebrated in Helsinki in the early 21st century; in the world of memory, seven people recount a traumatic event they expe­rienced ten years earlier. The connection between these realities is gradually revealed.

ACT I

Tuomas and Stela are getting married in Finland. They met while Tuomas was vaca­tioning in Romania. Stela is in love with her new country, ‘where one can stroll safely at night’, and Tuomas’s parents, Henrik and Patricia, are excited to have a new member of the family. However, the parents cannot agree whether Stela be told about the family drama they call ‘the tragedy’.

The wedding is haunted by seven figures who tell of their trauma and the difficulty of recap­turing normal life. Everything was turned upside down ten years earlier, while six of them were students in high school and the seventh taught them there.

ACT II

Some of the employees of the wedding’s catering service have fallen ill, and a Czech waitress, Tereza, is called in to help. As she arrives, Tereza realises she already knows the groom’s family (‘That name ended my life ten years ago’). Tereza is amazed that their lives could have continued, while hers was forever interrupted.

Tuomas’ parents argue again: Patricia thinks they should invite their firstborn son to the wedding, even though Stela doesn’t know of his existence. This is incon­ceivable to Henrik (‘That boy doesn’t belong to this family anymore!’). Later, he confesses to Tereza his disap­pointment in his son, but he does not seem to remember that he has met her before. He blames himself for his children’s harsh upbringing – and that he taught his son to shoot.

The students and teacher reveal more about their current lives; it is revealed that one of them is Markéta, Tereza’s daughter, who died in the tragedy.

ACT III

Tereza speaks to Stela and realizes that the tragedy and the family’s part in it have been hidden from the bride. Tereza reveals her identity to the father and accuses him of causing her daughter’s death. Meanwhile, the priest attempts to comfort Patricia, who blames herself for raising a monster. Alone, the priest admits he noticed there ‘was something wrong with that boy’ but never said anything at the time. He does not believe that the son, who has been released from prison with a new name, can be redeemed.

Markéta and the other students remember that day when the shooter, Tuomas’s brother, killed ten students and one teacher. Their memories morph into a recitation of the victims’ names. Those who survived ‘had to learn not to remind,’ except when the media and politicians exploited the tragedy to their advantage.

ACT IV

Tereza reveals the past events to Stela and the wedding guests. Tuomas wishes his brother was dead, but Patricia defends him, saying Markéta was also a monster because she bullied her son.

The students’ memories reveal that Markéta and some of the other survivors constantly bullied the shooter. One of the students, Iris, who was a friend of the shooter, pushes back against the others’ delusion that the bullying had nothing to do with the shooting. She blames them all for the tragedy.

ACT V

Stela and Tuomas discuss the consequences of Tereza’s reve­lations: Stela is ready to accept everything out of love for her fiancé, but Tuomas believes their new beginning is shattered. When the priest and his parents try to convince Tuomas to have faith in his future, Tuomas admits the truth: he, his brother and Iris conspired together to plan the shooting. At the decisive moment, Tuomas and Iris got cold feet, and the shooter carried out the plan alone, taking full respon­si­bility. Despite it all, deep shame and love for the shooter live on in both of them. This reve­lation destroys the family’s last hopes of escaping the past.

In the epilogue, we see glimpses of some survivors’ dreams for a more hopeful future. Markéta appears one last time and asks her mother to ‘let her go.’

Aleksi Barrière and Sofi Oksanen