The Short Fuse

Three teenagers on the margins of their school lives find themselves drawn into an unlikely alliance. Meri has spent years absorbing the violence of social exclusion. Kristian is caught in the fallout of a humiliating social media scandal. Janita has quietly dropped out of education to care for her sick mother at home. Each carries a private wound. Together, they hatch a plan for revenge.

What begins as something raw and dangerous shifts into something they did not expect: genuine connection.

The second season finds all three in more complex territory. Kristian, determined to reinvent himself through physical discipline and competitive sport, finds that old trauma does not disappear simply because the body grows stronger. Meri falls in love for the first time, and discovers that being close to someone after years of being hurt is its own kind of risk. Janita, always the one who puts others first, begins the slow and difficult work of looking after herself.

Directed by Petra Lumioksa and produced by Tekele Productions with Yle, The Short Fuse is a Finnish short-form drama series that takes the inner lives of young people seriously, without sentimentality or easy resolution. Selected for La Rochelle TV Festival.