‘Tell Everyone’ Helmer Alli Haapasalo on the Göteborg World Premiere

In her latest drama “Tell Everyone” Finnish director Alli Haapasalo – also known for Sundance hit ‘Girl Picture’ – goes back to the year 1898. But she found few differences between the past and the present.

“That’s the saddest part of the story – it’s just as relevant. This film deals with female suffering, both mental and physical, still viewed through the same gender-biased lens,” she tells Variety.

In “Tell Everyone” – sold by LevelK – women who commit crimes or simply refuse to conform are sent to the remote island of Seili in the Finnish archipelago. Just like Amanda (Marketta Tikkanen), labelled as mad simply because she suffers from severe menstrual pain. The film, world-premiering at Göteborg Film Festival, debuts its trailer here:

“My husband recommended a New York Times podcast [‘The Retrievals’] about female pain and how it’s misunderstood and ignored. Thousands of women suffer from With PMDD [Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder] yet it’s considered ‘insignificant’ because it doesn’t affect both genders. Not to mention we’re only now starting to talk about menopause, at least in Finland,” notes Haapasalo.

“I remember when we were shooting the scene where blood was running down Amanda’s hairy legs. There was nothing awkward or shameful about it. Maybe we’re slowly moving from the dinosaur era to a time when men and women can look at menstrual blood in a scene and it’s totally fine.”

Based on a novel by Katja Kallio, the film references hundreds of true stories.

“These ‘prison islands’ existed in many countries. The island of Seili started out as a hospital for people with leprosy and became a mental institution in the 19th century. Initially, it housed both men and women, but then all the men were moved – which must have been a crazy process,” notes the director.

It hasn’t always been run by medical professionals.

“These people used to work on farms. They didn’t know much about psychiatry – they didn’t even believe in it. The idea was to keep mental health patients separate from society so that they wouldn’t pose a danger to others.”

She adds: “This woman, Amanda, actually claimed she had flown to Paris in a hot air balloon to Paris. It was in her medical records, which caught Kallio’s attention. She asked herself: ‘What if we believe her and don’t just dismiss it as the story of a crazy woman?’”

Haapasalo was committed to depicting a “ruthless time” and a protagonist whose “only crime was being a woman with integrity”.

“If you weren’t productive, you were just another mouth to feed. People were put away not just because of their mental health. Sick of their wives, husbands could come up with a reason, and many of these women were simply poor. Amanda didn’t have a home, and that was enough to have her committed to an institution.”

Despite such horrific details, she ultimately portrayed a place that, despite being a prison, could also be beautiful.

“The surroundings are gorgeous in terms of nature, but the horror is already in these women’s lives: their freedom has been taken away from them. If horrible things happen in paradise, well, then it’s not really a paradise,” she concludes.

Another cliché she was determined to avoid? “It was really important to me that there were no sadistic nurses. There is no Nurse Ratched,” she smiles.

“Later on, they started to use controversial methods to calm people down and new psychiatric treatments, but at the time of our film, they just believed in hard work and spending time outside. That steady, calm life.”

The cast, also featuring Aamu Milonoff (“Soviet Jeans”) and local stars Krista Kosonen (“Tove”) and Alma Pöysti (Golden Globe-nominated for “Fallen Leaves”), embraced the natural look necessary for the film.

“Not a single person asked: ‘May I please wear a bit of foundation?’ They very strictly did not have any makeup on, but they all embraced it. Perhaps it’s because of all the contemporary conversations we’re having right now about makeup, and about showing our real selves as women, that nobody had an issue with it,” recalled Haapasalo.

In her film, Amanda is certainly unhappy with her predicament and unable to fully experience love, but she starts to make friends with other women who are also unable to escape.

“One of our distributors, the only man in our group of financiers, said he was jealous [of that]. He said: ‘I’ve never experienced anything like this community and I never will.’ Nevertheless, it’s a summer camp. It’s a small society with its own invisible hierarchies and secret relationships. It can be gruesome as well.”

While some industry insiders fear a slowdown in support for female-led projects, with one even describing 2025 as a ‘Great Recession’ for women directors, Haapasalo ponders: “After #MeToo, when women started getting more funding for their projects, some men immediately started to complain that, as a guy, you couldn’t get money anymore. But in 2024, when we got funding for this film, the numbers had already dropped. When I was making ‘Girl Picture,’ it was closer to 50/50.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if people said: ‘We’ve funded enough female work now.’ That’s classic backlash. Hopefully, though, we can recognize that a multitude of voices is better than having just one gender on top.”

This leads to more contemporary echoes in her film, where Amanda doesn’t simply submit to power structures.

“She can see right through them. She’s loud and obnoxious, and she does what she wants. She’s outrageous, because she doesn’t behave the way a woman is expected to, and that hasn’t changed much. I’m a good example of that; I constantly notice self-regulation in my behavior that stems from misogyny,” she says.

“Still, I’m not interested in seeing myself, or Amanda, as a victim.”