An outspoken woman is exiled to a women-led asylum in Tell Everyone, Alli Haapasalo’s striking drama, making its North American premiere at the 2026 Seattle International Film Festival.
I’ll be honest, for Tell Everyone, titled Kerro kaikille in the native Finnish, I expected a different sort of film coming in, but what I got was absolutely lovely, touching, and so incredibly well done, I was not upset, but lifted. It’s 1898, and Amanda is forced to move to the remote island of Seili. Why? What else do men often do to women who are outspoken, self-possessed, and refuse to put up with the patriarchy in the time before they could get their say? Alli Haapasalo’s film, adapted by Katja Kallio from her own novel, is poignant and heartfelt, turning a situation of “troubled” women being removed from society, and builds upon that to make their own and find themselves.
I loved Marketta Tikkanen as Amanda. She’s brash, direct, well accustomed to pushing back against authority, whether it be the various institutions back on land or now at Seili, the women-led kind of asylum that is the home of most of the residents on the Baltic island. Tikkanen imbues Amanda with a simmering truth and anger, one who knows the bad hand she and other women have been dealt. But Tiakkanan also finds a restraint and honesty, selling so much with a clenched jaw and bright eyes. 
But Tell Everyone is not a One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Finland 1890s edition. Of course, Amanda does fight for herself, make her needs known, and the like, but she also finds herself thriving in the new world; well, as best she can with the parameters. Those who control the location aren’t monsters, nurses, and administrators with sadistic power runs, as much as Amanda might think at the start (or the viewer may expect). They are women written with depth, their own wants and needs, and banding their control in the microcosm of a system that has also abandoned them. Specifically, when one gets hurt, we feel for her as well, even though we don’t like what she did to get there. It’s a film of incredible nuance.
Tell Everyone isn’t breaking the walls of the asylum, but breaking down the personal walls of the situation. It is a film of repressed, righteous rage about how women, their bodies, and their minds are treated. But far more in a personal journey. As Amanda meets the other women and becomes part of the world, she finds herself in a new manner of life. Of course, the chance to escape can present itself, but that itself shows the power imbalances and heightens. With her dresses and stories, the situation is never perfect; the past remains a lost world, unjustly ripped from Amanda and countless other women. After all, it’s from a novel based on the collected stories of hundreds of women sent to Seiji over the decades (it closed in 1962).
Tell Everyone is a beautifully shot picture, lensed by Jarmo Kiuru. But, unlike the rest of the film, in an understated manner. Deep browns and dark greens pervade with a muted palette. It’s gorgeous but not showing off, letting the land, the place, and the people speak for themselves.
Tell Everyone is a wonderful character study of the continued effects of misogyny in a time where women’s voices are still stifled across the world. With an amazing performance by Marketta Tikkanen, this story of women’s survival on unfair exile to the island of Seji is telling and touching. It has a quiet power.
Tell Everyone, making its North American debut, is presented as part of the 52nd Seattle International Film Festival, running from May 7th through May 17th, 2026. See https://www.siff.net/festival for more. See all SIFF coverage HERE.