RW Stories in Development

Eva Törngren and Ida Lönnrot

The Remarkable Women Behind Elias Lönnrot

The Remarkable Women Behind Elias Lönnrot, features two remarkable women: Eva Törngren, the poet’s long-term patron, and his devoted daughter, Ida Lönnrot, who served as his assistant for decades. Elias Lönnrot collected and recorded folk tales from Finnish villages. His work, compiled in the iconic Kalevala, is believed to have inspired J.R.R. Tolkien to create the Hobbits and other characters featured in his iconic novel, The Lord of the Rings. This episode features Antti Reini, one of Scandinavia’s most popular actors, playing Lönnrot. This compelling story about the women behind the success of the man credited with saving the Finnish language, among other accomplishments, will be told through expert interviews, innovative animation by a team of Finnish animators and scripted scenes featuring period costumes by Jussi award-winning Finnish costume designer, Anu Gould.

  • Mervi Enqvist

    WRITER AND DIRECTOR

    Mervi Enqvist is a Finnish documentarian and author. Mervi has been working in radio, TV and film for 25 years. Her first documentary film, The Boys of Bensonhurst Brooklyn, premiered in Finnish theaters in 2014. In 2017, her second documentary War/Peace was released. Her latest film, Power of the People, premiered at DocPoint Film Festival in January 2022. Enqvist is related to Elias Lönnrot, and has a personal interest in telling this story.

  • Anu Gould

    WARDROBE DESIGNER AND CONSULTANT

    Anu Gould recently won Finland’s top filmmaking honor, a Jussi Award, for best costume design for The Grave Digger’s Wife, a feature film released in 2022.
    Anu works on films around the world. Her latest film is due out in November, 2022.

  • Merja Ritola

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, REMARKABLE WOMEN SERIES CO-CREATOR AND PRODUCER

    Since 2000, Ritola has been working on 44 titles (among them Iron Sky, Jade Warrior, Man’s Job) serving as a producer on 24 projects. During her career, she has participated in EAVE and EWA workshops. Since 2012 she has been an independent producer for short films, documentaries and fiction features. In 2017 she joined at Greenlit Productions, established by producer Essi Haukkamaa.
    Ritola’s productions include the feature documentary The Seamstress by Ville Suhonen, which won 2016 a Jussi Award for the Best Documentary Film and the award-winning documentary film Putting Lipstick on a Pig by Johan Karrento, the internationally acclaimed feature documentary The Voice of Sokurov by Leena Kilpeläinen and nationally acclaimed science-fiction feature Apeiron by Maria Ruotsala.
    She recently produced a feature documentary about the legendary Finnish print and textile designer Maija Isola.

  • Antti Reini

    ACTOR

    Finnish actor Antti Reini is attached to play Elias Lönnrot in this episode.