Hella Wuolijoki Biography

One of Finland’s foremost playwrights, Hella Wuolijoki, led a fascinating life as playwright, politician, reporter, businesswoman, and mother. Throughout her career, she worked with various law firms, authored over 20 plays, became director of the ‘Finnish Broadcasting Company’, and played a major peacekeeping role between Finland and the Russians. For political reasons, most of her plays were written under a male pseudonym. The main theme of her plays involved very strong women characters who had significant societal impacts through their successful working careers. Some of her more famous plays were later adapted to film and television. Prior to the Second World War, she owned a salon which became a political hot spot for Russians and this made her government very suspicious of her activities. For years she was thought to be a Russian spy and was even arrested during WWII. This fascinating woman was a pioneer for the notion of a working mother with an extremely successful career. She has inspired a movie based on her life story called ‘Hella W’ which focuses on her entrepreneurial and playwriting skills. Prior to this film, nearly all of Finnish history and film has been told from the male perspective, but just as she did in her real life this film brings women to the forefront