Putting Lipstick on a Pig (2018)

• 76%
• 2018
• Documentary
• Johan Karrento

Paivi is in her 50's and lives on Aland, an island in Finland with 30 000 people. We have our own government which can decide some things independently of the Finnish government: taxes, hunting, gambling etc. Paivi is a single mother and when her boys move out she is alone. She looks for company online and finds gambling. She gets addicted. She is an accountant and has access to money. Things go out of hand. Suddenly she has lost 819 000 - of her clients money! She is caught and it is a big scandal. She tries to commit suicide but gets jail. The clients are angry, they trusted her! It gets worse. It turns out she lost it all to the local gambling company. They hold a monopoly license to prevent from addiction and criminality - exactly what they didn't. The money went to the local government and they distributed it to the people: to football associations, research etc. It all turns into a money laundry case, the first in Finnish legal history to involve a gambling company. But the government refuses to pay back the money which make Paivis former clients furious. The movie had a preview on Aland where it ran for four days and won the audience award. Public opinion became strong and the government now have to plan on how to pay back and how to prevent this from happening again. But people get addicted to gambling everyday. Right now someone is losing everything. Right now, a gambler filled with guilt tries to kill herself. This is just the story of one gambler.