Mehis Pihla

BUSINESS AS USUAL

Flashing their white teeth, they say it's just business. Others call it money laundering. It has, however, been dubbed one of the most high-profile "laundromats" of the past decade – a 200-billion-dollar scheme involving a Danish bank, oligarchs, prostitutes, and security personnel. The Danske Bank money laundering scandal shook the Estonian and wider regional banking system several years ago.

At the heart of this documentary story is a young man from Annelinn, a suburb of Tartu, who gets a job at the foreign division of a capital city bank. Money. He has always been clawing his way out of poverty – and here, the principal clientele of the bank consists of Eastern Bloc oligarchs. Business is booming, and the services offered by this branch of a Scandinavian bank are as reliable as a "swissarskaya", as discreet as an "offshornaya" account, and as tight as a "peterburgskaya".

This is a story about Europe, about its dark underbelly. With dark humour, it dissects a reality in which cash is transported not in briefcases but in suitcases. Having become one of the most sought-after productions in the Baltic, with its first sixteen performances selling out within minutes, the documentary piece "Business as Usual" offers a rare glimpse into a world accessible only to the elite, money mules, and hustlers.

Drawing on well-researched documentary sources, press publications, and interviews, the authors of the production offer a compelling inquiry into questions of real consequence: which money exactly continues to shape the societies of our region? And how has money laundering, over decades, influenced the politics of the Western world?

Band: Maria Faust (Denmark/Estonia) – saxophone/kapellmeister, Mads Hyhne (Denmark) – trombone, Oscar Andreas Haug (Norway) – trumpet, Jakob Munck Mortensen (Denmark) – tuba, Ahto Abner (Estonia) – percussion.

Language – Estonian, English, Danish, and Russian with subtitles in Latvian and English.

Supported by Riga Investment and Tourism Agency and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Estonia.

“Why Riga?