HopeaCiné: The Kidnapping of a President

HopeaCiné: The Kidnapping of a President is a film screening at Cultural Centre Malmitalo in Helsinki on 22 October 2026, 13:00. HopeaCiné is a programme designed for seniors that shows new Finnish films once a month. Each screening has filmmakers or film experts as guests, who talk after the film about the filmmaking process and share further insights. The Kidnapping of a President is inspired by true events and is set in 1930. During a night of heavy drinking, a group of ambitious officers decide to kidnap Finland's first president, the already retired K. J. Ståhlberg. His wife Ester Ståhlberg refuses to leave his side and insists on getting into the backseat of the car with the kidnappers. The story follows a journey through a turbulent Finland, and it remains unclear what was fact and what was fiction in the kidnapping.