Off the map (part 1)

“Off the map” is a series about which it is difficult to say anything without revealing the end. Up to that point – and even afterwards – it is an intricate mystery. The story takes place in the world of television and has been planned specifically for video, making use of the particular features of the medium. Production Assistant Helena Koskinen ( Mari Rantasila) has an accident at work and suffers brain damage which reduces her short-term memory span to under a minute. She is looked after by her lover, Studio Manager Tapani Helander (Vesa Vierikko). Gradually Tapani comes to realize that something “ very strange and dangerous”, as he says, is happening to or around Helena – but what? Helena can’t – or won’t – say. Tapani finds himself on a journey which will bring him face to face with the basic questions of life and death – a journey Helena has been on for some time. The narrative functions on several time levels and the past is continually brought into the present moment. Indeed time is one of the series’ principle themes: Tapani has continually to study the past in order to understand what is happening in the present, while Helena lives only a narrowly restricted present moment, which slips out o her memory within seconds.