The collaboration between the French and Juho Kuosmanen was unexpectedly terminated at the last minute.
Nadia Tereszkiewiczin was set to portray the main character in a TV series directed by Juho Kuosmanen. The series was based on Leila Slimani’s successful novel Other people’s land and was largely to be filmed in Morocco.
However, a few months into filming, Paramount+, the streaming service that had commissioned the series, decided to cancel it. This cancellation had not previously been reported in Finland.
“It’s extremely disappointing, especially since I had invited Juho to participate,” Tereszkiewicz expressed from her home in Paris.
“It was a fantastic project. Juho invested an enormous amount of work into it, only for them to suddenly announce its termination.”
In the series, Tereszkiewicz was to portray the matriarch of a French-Moroccan family in a chronicle set in the 1940s. The actress often takes on roles from different eras, possibly due to her old-fashioned accent, reminiscent of French from the 1960s.
“I’ve heard it from numerous people, so it must be accurate.”
Tereszkiewicz, a 27-year-old of Finnish and Polish descent, was raised in Paris in the 21st century. She spent summers in Finland, spoke Finnish with her mother, and watched the Moomins in Finnish.
“I don’t speak Finnish well,” Tereszkiewicz asserts.
In reality, she speaks Finnish quite well, only resorting to English when she forgets complex words.
“However, when I need to express intense emotions on set, my thoughts naturally drift into Finnish,” the actress explains.
“Whenever my character is praying, I pray in Finnish because it feels the most authentic to me.”
Tereszkiewicz gained fame in France after starring in Francois Ozonin’s comedy The crime is mine, which attracted over a million viewers. Prior to this, she was recognized for her role in the drama series Forever Young about theatre school students.
Last year, she appeared in the historical drama Rosalie where she played a bearded woman, and in the 1970s-set Madagascan film Red Island which is now premiering in Finland.
When director-writer Robin Campillo was casting Red Island, he considered Tereszkiewicz for a supporting role.
“When I auditioned, Robin mentioned that I reminded him of his mother and that I had a 1960s persona,” she recalls.
In the end, Campillo chose Tereszkiewicz for the leading role in Red Island, an autobiographical exploration of family and colonial dynamics.
Tereszkiewicz shares that Campillo wanted the character of the mother to subtly embody the era’s revolutionary spirit. The character is a housewife who strives to keep her family together, despite recognizing its fractures, and already anticipating her departure from her husband once they return to France after his military service.
“The film juxtaposes the façade of family unity with the illusion of colonialism and the impending sense of its end,” she explains.
In a video call at the beginning of the interview, Tereszkiewicz admits to feeling nervous. She had called her mother the night before, worried about her elevated heart rate and difficulty breathing.
She’s juggling too many things simultaneously, the actress admits, expressing regret for agreeing to attend the upcoming Cesar gala.
The Cesars are the French equivalent of the Oscars. Given the French’s deep reverence for cinema, it’s a significant event. Tereszkiewicz was also asked to host a major segment of the gala.
“I declined. I can’t crack jokes with Christopher Nolan seated in the front row,” she jokes.
Last year, Tereszkiewicz won the newcomer award and is now tasked with presenting it. The gala begins with this award, meaning she will kick off the broadcast.
“We’ll be five presenters, including Diane Kruger and Juliette Binoche among others.”
But her stress isn’t solely from the gala preparations.
“I have an audition for a leading role in an HBO series on the same day as the Cesars. It’s a strange industry. Everyone seems to call at once.”
