It is parliamentary election spring 2019. Jukka, a professor from the University of Helsinki and a first time candidate, is walking to the kick-off event, and is determined to change the lousy University Act. At the same time, education and science professionals, Gaela, Lena and Taina, go through their own battle to be able to teach and research - struggling with law case, layoffs, lack of resources and dysfunctional structures. However, the biggest resistance is The Finnish anti-education and anti-science Government, which changes every four years.

The Other Voice is Annika Grof’s edgy and popping collage film about four academics and one cinematographer. The film reflects the tragic situation of the university to the recent past's national political twists and turns revealing the flaws of Finnish democracy.

Governments come and governments go, but disinterest by politicians on science and education remains. In the constantly changing world, we need something stable, someone said.

Known as a filmmaker who gets excited by topics considered unexciting, I wanted to dig into the world of education policy and find out the reason behind blightning the universities that has been going on for over a decade in Finland. And there's more: I wanted to make a poppish, groovy and entertaining film about it. What do you say about that?

After finding a producer who was reckless enough, main characters who were brave enough and a camera I could use, I started to delineate a film which would blow the audience off their seats. I was determined to bring the plight of science into daylight. Science, which is pushed in the shadows of politics because it doesn't bring votes to politicians' pockets, because the citizens don't understand a smidgen about its significance to themselves.

Did I succeed resolving the reasons behind the current ridiculous situation in universities? Did I manage to make a poppish film? Did I finally learn how to pull focus on the complicated camera lense? I hope you all see yourselves and find out!

– Annika Grof
Writer & Director of The Other Voice

In 2009, the reform of the University Act, hammered through by the government of that time, opened university budgets to a free market economy, valuing research and science more powerfully measurable in money. More efficiency, productivity, innovation, learning and focusing on Ministry of Education’s lighthouse projects were wanted from universities. Since then, the unsexy, non-money-producing human sciences began to wither away to non-existence, because in capitalism everything must be quantified in economic terms.

The law reform, accompanied by cuts by the government in 2015, made mass dismissals and the dismantling of the university’s internal democracy possible in Helsinki University. This was followed by a brazen power struggle and lawlessness. Decision-making power was excluded from the university staff and students. Influencers from the business world were appointed to be part of the management, corporations were established to run the resources and consultants were hired to act as experts. The field of science and research had narrowed again, or should I say, made more efficient?

All of this feels quite familiar to us all in our time: endless optimizing and measuring everything in money. The reform concerning universities in 2009 was also justified by the pressures to make universities autonomous, internationalization and rankings. Now, more than 10 years later, it can be said that none of these things have improved as a result of the change in the law.

One might ask, what was the ultimate purpose of the bill then? Why were the actual experts, such as the Association of Scientists and the Association of Professors, not listened to during the preparation of the law? Did party politics crush the unwanted arguments? And above all, by what methods are decisions actually made in parliamentarism?

The university is one of the cornerstones of our welfare society and democratic system. By silencing other voices raising from the field of science, by demarcating disciplines, by not listening to experts in the drafting of legislation, by focusing only on populist issues – we are crumbling and despising democracy.

If this important topic sounds too dry for you,  don't worry! We made it in the form of a disco track, a movie called The Other Voice.

– Joon Tervakari
Producer and Distributor of The Other Voice