Greenwashing Lapland: Branding sustainability for mobile production

The Nordic film industries offer extensive tax rebates and financial incentives to attract international runaway productions. In promotional PR surrounding these incentives, economic savings combine with colourful images of pristine natural landscapes and promises of professional crews and infrastructure. Amongst these ‘promises’ is environmental sustainability, which operates as one of the main attractions for reputation-aware international productions. Yet, runaway (or ‘mobile’) production exhibits an inherent clash between the promotional rhetoric of the incentives and the environmental impacts the productions generate. To analyse these practices, this short piece focuses on Finland, and Finnish Lapland in particular where such collaborations have been slow to develop. By offering a ‘package’ of solid infrastructure, economic stability, competitive financing and natural scenery, Film Lapland, the regional film commission, engages in competitive bidding for incoming productions but arguably undermines some of the environmental ideas it simultaneously promotes.