Forgiven

Based on Laura Manninen’s best-selling novel (Kaikki Anteeksi), which draws on her own experiences, Forgiven is a darkly tragic series about love, domestic violence, shame and the culture of silence that keeps such stories behind closed doors.

Thirty-something Vilma meets and falls in love with Mikko, who is perfect in many ways: a charming, polite, sensitive and sympathetically capricious man. Initially, Vilma downplays the seeds of doubt that have planted in her mind and, despite never having dreamed of children, her and Mikko soon become a blended family with three children and all the daily chaos that entails.

With a gorgeous house, apple trees and a pet dog, everything on the surface looks perfect, but little by little Mikko’s true personality is revealed and the idyll collapses. As Mikko turns increasingly violent, love, shame and fear, and the need to solve the problems, keep Vilma in this abusive relationship until the situation escalates to the point where staying alive is her only focus. Intimate and claustrophobic, this gripping mini-series is also a cautionary tale about how the abnormal can become completely normal.