David
Adegbola

I came to Finland as a student and found a country that has perfected the art of the invisible systems that simply work, silence that means something, spaces where people live whole lives without much ceremony. As an outsider, I couldn't stop watching.

Documentary filmmaking, for me, begins with curiosity and stays there. I'm not trying to explain Finland. I'm trying to understand it, one café, one restaurant, one Vappu at a time. The subjects I choose are ones I'd want to spend days with whether or not a camera was involved.

I believe the best documentaries make you feel that the filmmaker genuinely didn't know how the story would end before they started. That uncertainty, the willingness to be surprised, is the thing worth protecting most. I write before I shoot, and I keep notes throughout. Writing is how I stay honest.

I'm Nigerian, based in Vaasa, and still learning Finnish. All three facts matter for how I see things. The combination — African, Nordic, perpetually an outsider is not something I try to neutralise. It's probably the most useful thing I bring to any room I film in.