Our war history documentary series Untold Arctic Wars delves into the events of World War II in the Arctic. This award-winning series has already been sold to 100 countries and has been viewed by audiences not only in the North but also in Australia, the Middle East, Central Europe and South America.
Scaling the programme brand across platforms is part of NTRNZ media’s concept development and marketing: Untold Arctic Wars has been adapted into a digital exhibition, audio content and most recently, a non-fiction book.
Digital exhibitions held at historical war sites
In the summer of 2022, the first Untold Arctic Wars exhibition opened at the Winter War Museum in Kuhmo, one of the famous Winter War battlegrounds between the Soviet and Finnish troops. A year later, a second exhibition opened in Suomussalmi, where the Finns fought victoriously against the superior Soviet forces. This battle is considered by many the most significant Finnish victory and a symbol of the Winter War.
The exhibitions consist of multimedia content such as 3D images, map animations, and video and audio content that go deeper into the themes covered in the TV series. The themes of the exhibitions are complementary: the Kuhmo exhibition focuses on the Winter War, the Suomussalmi exhibition on the Raate Road events and the media war.
Bringing a modern digital exhibition close to where the real events took place will hopefully open up history in an interesting way to a young audience. The exhibitions are free to the public, allowing visitors to explore the content at their leisure. We’ve included many expert interviews and animated maps not seen in the documentary series.
Teemu Hostikka, executive producer
Audio content that sheds light on the research
In addition to the exhibitions, the series’ extensive background research has been used to produce a range of audio content. One of these is the “Echoes of the Arctic Wars” podcast, in which young researchers Aleksi Rikkinen and Emil Kastehelmi, who also appeared in the series, further discuss the series’ themes. The ten-part podcast examines Second World War events and their relevance today. Rikkinen and Kastehelmi are joined by several of Finland’s top experts, some of whom also appeared in the TV series.
Listen to the podcast on Yle Areena (in Finnish)In cooperation with Storytel, we produced an audio and e-book based on the series, in which the main experts Mika Kulju and Lars Gyllenhaal shed light on the background of the events. The book, available on audiobook services, will help the viewer of the series to get even deeper into the cause-and-effect relationships and the chain of events during the Second World War.
A visually stunning new book out
The content of Untold Arctic Wars has also been packaged into a physical non-fiction book in collaboration with Readme.fi. The printed book takes the reading experience many steps further with stunning, vivid archive images and illustrative maps. The book is a great gift for Father’s Day and Christmas for history-loving readers!
The book brings the visuals seen in the series on paper. Together with the publisher, we managed to create an exceptionally beautiful and distinguished print for the book, which our graphic designers have carefully designed.
Teemu Hostikka, executive producer.
NTRNZ media is a creative agency focused on content production, whose values are based on the pure nature of the North. The company is best known for its four-time Golden Venla award-winning Eränkävijät TV series, its international version Love of the Wild and the internationally acclaimed war history documentary series Untold Arctic Wars. In 2022, NTRNZ media was an Agency of the Year finalist.
The Untold Arctic Wars book tells the story behind the events of the TV series of the same name, as told by two distinguished historians. The Untold Arctic Wars documentary series has been sold to over 100 countries and is the first Finnish documentary series to be acquired by The Walt Disney Company for its National Geographic channel. In 2022, the series won the prestigious Intermedia-Globe Gold Award for Best History Documentary at Hamburg’s World Media Festival and has been selected as a finalist for the Berlin International TV Series Festival.
