The Informer

Urban reality in Jukka Vieno’s cinematic “The Informer” is painted with yellow and grey hues, and conditions those under its influence in a way that cannot be escaped through means other than blind violence which selects its victims at random. The law-enforcement itself is a prisoner of its own prejudices and ambitions, resulting in police violence that is just as arbitrary as is the violence of those kicking an old woman in the streets. In “The Informer”, a poet is obsessively harassed by the police, determined at turning him into an informer against cocaine smugglers. This, it seems, simply because “all poets use the stuff”. But what good would the poet, an informer by his very profession, do by complying, which ultimately would either be an act of revenge, misery or the enhancement of self-esteem? Unavoidably, in his position informing produces no moral good, only violence. Cocaine in Vieno’s play becomes an example of modern branded goods, goods which generate wealth and belong to the surface, to an escape world. (Tinfo/Sunklo)