Between two countries: Estonian workers in Finland get a television series of their own

An Estonian construction worker often leaves his home country as he has no other choice

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By Kaja Kunnas in Kemba and Tallinn
     
      Log houses, a birch forest, and a body of water. The filming location has been chosen because of the landscape.
      It cannot be denied that the natural surroundings in the Estonian village of Kemba do resemble Finland.
      ”This is where we live - temporarily of course. Lodgings are being sought for us. We usually live in an apartment or in a somewhat bigger trailer than this one”, says Anti (Andres Mähar), showing off a small mobile home, which is similar to those in which Estonian construction workers often live in Finland.
     
Anti is a foreman and a professional builder in the television series Kalevipojad, which is a story of Estonian construction workers in Finland.
      ”A real hippie camp”, snorts student Eliisa (Adelee Sepp), glancing around.
      In the TV-drama, Eliisa is writing a dissertation on Estonians who are travelling between the two countries.
      The Finnish employer in the story has squeezed four Estonian construction workers into this small trailer.
      Cut! The scene is in the can.
     
The title of the TV-series comes from Kalevipoeg (”Kalev’s Son”), the hero of the Estonian national epic, which is the Estonian equivalent of the Finnish Kalevala.
      Kalevipoeg is strong and friendly, but a little on the carefree, thoughtless side.
      The Kalevipoegs in this tv-series are the Estonian construction workers who work across the water in Finland.
      The series Kalevipojad is a pointed, tragicomic narrative of everything that can happen to a migrant worker in Finland.
      In some respects it resembles the popular British mini-series Boys from the Blackstuff (1982), or the long-running Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983-2004), the adventures of a gang of British workmen abroad.
      Kalevipojad is based on true stories - some of them all too true.
      The series also shows the human side of an Estonian construction worker, and goes some way towards explaining why so many Estonians have left for Finland.
     
In Estonia, tales are heard about the often squalid living conditions of migrant workers in Finland.
      They vary from large dormitories occupied by international groups of workers to remote cottages with a sauna.
      A typical form of living is a two-room apartment, in which a few construction workers have been "temporarily" billeted for more than a year.
      Kalevipojad describes the problems faced by these workers.
      The men cannot take their families with them, as living in Finland is expensive, and the job is project work.
      A man may be one month in Finland working, and at times some weeks at home in Estonia, until he comes back to work. The wages in the country of work secure a livelihood in the home country.
     
Frequently, a man goes to Finland to earn money in order to save his family, while at the same time, it may be difficult to keep the family together.
      Anti, the foreman in the TV-series, has enjoyed living in two countries for many years.
      He has secretly kept one family in Estonia and another in Finland.
      Not until he is about to start a third family does Anti find himself in a mess.
     
The main character in the series is Indrek (played by Ivo Uukkivi, who is also on the producing team), whose wife has arranged her husband a job in Finland, as the bank threatens to foreclose on their house.
      The house was bought in the years of the real estate bubble and is located in a residential area built on a field near Tallinn. The value of the house has crashed.
      In Finland, Indrek is concentrating on concealing the awkward fact that he has not actually built anything before. He is a former culture worker, who has never once held a drill in his hand.
      Many other workers are in a tricky situation, too.
     
In the Kalevipojad series, Mauri (Asko Sahlman), who is a Finnish innkeeper and a former construction worker on the Viru Hotel in Tallinn, takes advantage of the predicament of the Estonian men, presenting himself as a great friend and champion of Estonia.
      The stingy publican has hired the men to moonlight. He stresses that Finns and Estonians are cousins, and he even speaks a little Estonian. However, as Mauri’s employees, the Estonian men’s life situations become even more twisted and tangled.
      Mauri needs the Estonian men for the extension of his inn, but the workers do not recognise the mutual interdependence from the way he treats them.
      They have to be satisfied with a trailer as home, and with hourly wages of EUR 9, and even that is in danger of going unpaid.
      Six of the 12 episodes of the series had been filmed, when Asko Sahlman died in a motorbike accident on September 17th.
      Producer Ivo Ùukkivi says that the series will nevertheless be completed.
     
The scriptwriter of the series is Martin Algus, who is himself a building worker’s son, and knows the subject inside out.
      Many of his relatives and friends are working abroad as construction workers.
      In addition, dozens of people have written to Estonia’s Kanal 2 about unusual experiences they have encountered as workers in Finland.
      At present, Algus is mirroring his characters as he is shuttling between Estonia and Finland, working in cooperation with theatres in Turku and Kuopio.
     
There is no precise information about the number of people commuting to work between Finland and Estonia.
      The Estonian Association of Construction Entrepreneurs has estimated that the number of Estonian construction workers on site in Finland is approximately 20,000 to 30,000.
      Estonian construction enterprises have won contracts in Finland, and many of them are doing well.
      However, very often workers are leaving Estonia because they have run out of options at home.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 29.9.2011


Previously in HS International Edition:
  City of Helsinki to check on payment of Estonian workers at city construction site (27.11.2009)
  Shady Estonian companies pose problems for Finnish builders (25.11.2009)

See also:
  Fewer Estonian workers found on Finnish construction sites (20.2.2007)
  FACTFILE: 12,000 Estonian construction workers in Finland (20.2.2007)

Links:
  Kalevipoeg (Wikipedia)
  Kanal 2 - Kalevipojad (in Estonian)

KAJA KUNNAS / Helsingin Sanomat
kajakunnas@hotmail.com