Issue #3 now available and... Finnish film, Tunisian education fraud and Dhaka’s hidden waterways
DISPATCH №62
Hello and welcome. Each week, Translator’s Dispatch brings you summaries of three compelling articles from media beyond the Anglosphere. It’s our way of helping us all read the world a little differently.
This week we begin in Finland with an in-depth article into the funding model behind Finnish film-making and where it’s broken.
From Tunisia, we hear about an educational fraud and its consequences.
And from Bangladesh, a piece on how Dhaka’s hidden waterways may offer a solution to the mega-city’s traffic gridlock.
Before we get to the summaries…
Translator Issue #3 is available now!
On Wednesday 22 April, we launched Translator Issue #3 – you can order your copy now.
Inside, you’ll find stories from across the world: a Korean middle school on the political frontline, the world of gaming in 1980s Hungary, the fragile ecology (and mystery) of eels in northern Italy, the culture of shamans on the border of China and Vietnam, a searing investigation into Romania’s aesthetic gynaecology industry and Translator’s original Street Talks give voice to hyperlocal stories from Tehran, Karachi, Kyoto, Gaza and Bangalore – all illustrated by artists from around the world.
Plus: Abdul Bacet’s photo essay on Babur’s Gardens in Kabul, an interview with Abeera Kamran and Zeerak Ahmed on digitising the Urdu script, a multilingual crossword, and reviews of Polly Barton’s debut novel and Alexander Voloshin’s migration memoir.
Support Translator to continue translating and publishing long-form reportage and journalism from beyond the Anglosphere by purchasing your copy of Issue #3 here.
…ok, back to this week’s summaries. Enjoy the read!
Who’s calling cut on Finnish film?
How dwindling grants and a war over who deserves them are threatening Finnish cinema
Trouble is afoot in the Finnish Film industry. A recent investigation in Long Play by Kalle Kinnunen, based on interviews with nine producers, came to a stark conclusion: “Nobody is having fun”. The Finnish film industry is headed towards serious trouble. The main culprit? Money – but not just.
Several interviewees point enviously to the international successes of their Scandinavian neighbours in recent years. Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness received three nominations at the Oscars. Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value got nine. Finnish cinema is close to achieving the same. As producer Jussi Rantamäki notes: “Juho Kuosmanen is just one step away”.
None of the producers interviewed think there are open conflicts of interest in the industry as such but when scarcity is shared, two mindsets – commercial and artistic – inevitably collide.
Last autumn, public funding for Finnish cinema narrowly escaped planes massive cuts to production support from the state. A fierce campaign on behalf of Finnish cinema brought together both those who see film as a business for the domestic market, and those who have wider or more artistic ambitions. In the end, even the ruling centre-right National Coalition Party signalled that the intended cuts had been a huge mistake.
But the sector’s audible sigh of relief may only be temporary. In the current financial situation, the article notes, “no sector is safe from cuts”. Just recently, the budget manager at the Ministry of Finance, wrote a newspaper column signalling the need for further retrenchment in public finances.
Subsidies for film in Finland are already significantly than in other Nordic countries. As the article notes, there’s been no increase in the last fifteen years. On the contrary, subsidies were actually cut by five million in 2018. When you factor in inflation over the last few years, Kinnunen explains, the Film Foundation’s grants these days are “simply too small”. He emphasises that the Foundation has a statutory mandate to support Finnish culture: “this law is the cornerstone of the filmmaking ecosystem”.
What to do? “If the pot doesn’t grow, the number of films will inevitably decrease, and the number of production companies will inevitably decrease. We make too few ambitious films for the public. Should they be financed with more money specifically on cultural grounds?”, asks producer Nina Laurio.
To be clear, films aren’t generally made with grants alone. Their function is to act as seed funding, to attract commercial actors with the promise that the film is viable. Grant funding is “an essential message that there is trust in the project.” But who should get it?
The article divides Finnish films into three broad categories: films for the general public, motivated by the pursuit of high viewership; internationally co-financed films, which are usually director-driven; and domestic auteur films that are not developed on commercial lines. The latter are sometimes financed up to 70 per cent by grants from the Film Foundation.
Because so few films turn a profit, production companies have virtually no cash reserves. Self-financing essentially means the producer deferring their own fee and, in a wonderful turn of phrase in the article, “eating pea soup”.
The Finnish Cinema Association, naturally enough, has set out its position that subsidies should be directed to films with the possibility of having a large domestic audience – the target of two million is cited. There’s a big skew in terms of who watches what in Finland: domestic films account for thirty per cent of what people watch in the country overall, but it’s over half in the regions, and eighty per cent in some villages.
The Foundation operates a complicated points system for determining who gets support. Past success is a major factor. Some in the industry suspect foul play involved in manipulating applications to maximise points: including the name of a famous director on the application for example, then dropping the director once funding is in place. But, of course, it’s difficult to prove.
What do distributors want? Copper-bottomed, sure-fire, dead-cert winners. Doesn’t everyone? But, in reality, these don’t exist. Kinnunen notes an unusually large number of films that were expected to be hits have flopped in recent years. Success can spring from surprising places. Though sequels, TV spin-offs, and biopics may be statistically more likely to reach higher viewership, this can only be achieved if the end product is actually good.
What can actually happen, in the search for the magic formula to get domestic funding and appease local distributors, is something else. Domestic storylines grow stale, artistic risks are not taken, foreign market are ignored. “Courage”, the article notes, “is the only way to move forward”.
But courage with the right support networks in place. “Making a film is fantastic, but financing it is really boring,” says producer Jani Pösö.
The original article ‘Enemmän elokuvatukea mutta harvemmille. Kenelle?’ by Kalle Kinnunen was published in Finnish by Long Play on March 18, 2026.
It is available here.
Long Play is an independent, reader-funded Finnish digital magazine founded in 2014 that specialises in long-form investigative and narrative journalism.
Summary by TMH
Degrees of deception
How a private institution in Tunis sold students the dream of an internationally recognised degree, then failed to deliver
When somebody tells you “university is a scam”, it’s usually a matter of opinion. In Tunisia, one institution has made this phrase uncomfortably literal.
Inkyfada, a Tunis-based non-profit media collective, recently published the findings of its investigation into the workings of the so-called “Digital College”, which they claim amounts to a fraud on students – giving them useless certificates while taking thousands of dinars in fees, and years of students’ lives that they’ll never get back.
Targeting students fresh out of secondary school with promises of internationally recognised certificates and the opportunity to study abroad, the Digital College offered courses in digital marketing, social media management, content creation and digital communication, all made more palatable by its apparent affiliation with the Collège de Paris, a French institution with several satellite branches around the world.
It was launched with great fanfare in 2022 with ads across billboards and on social media. One student tells Inkyfada how he fell for it. Ahmed* had an offer at a public university but enrolled at “Digital College” after seeing the online ads and because friends were already studying there. He visited the campus and met with a representative who boasted of work opportunities in digital, and the chance to study abroad. It all seemed, he said, like an “official university” – with the formal language of “students” and programmes described as “Bachelor’s” and “Master’s” degrees. It never occurred to him to ask whether such degrees would carry formal status as such.
During his first year, suspicions began to mount. Things started changing on the website. (The article includes the screenshot of a 404 Error message when looking up the college online, snippets from emails, and recordings of students talking about their experience). Ahmed was not alone in getting worried. Many students hoping to study abroad had begun to ask about the process. Several contacted the Collège de Paris directly – only to be told that no such affiliation existed. Some reached out to the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education to inquire about the college’s legal status – to discover it was not recognised within the national system.
On 23 December 2025, the Ministry issued a statement making clear that only licensed institutions can award degrees, and that advertising otherwise is prohibited. In January 2026, students noticed changes on the college’s website – the word “university” was replaced with more generic terms referring to “training”. As public scrutiny grew, the institution formally admitted to not holding university status at a meeting on 14 February 2026. A lawyer consulted by Inkyfada explained that misrepresentation is illegal in Tunisia, carrying the risk of five years in prison and a fine.
The story doesn’t stop there. Inkyfada’s research connected them to French journalists investigating the wider Collège de Paris group. A report by Béatrice Mathieu revealed that the group is teetering on full blown bankruptcy, with debts of up to 90 million euros (£78 million / $105 million). Several French investigations into institutions belonging to the group are underway.
For students like Ahmed*, the revelations have been devastating. The programme cost him TND 7,900 (equivalent to £2,000 or $2,700) per year, an enormous sum that he, and many other Tunisians, had considered a serious investment. Some may be able to get their money back; some may have already done so. But how should they value their certificates, or their wasted time? There are some things you can’t get back.
The original article ‘“Digital College”: بين صفة الجامعة وواقع مركز التكوين’ by Omaima Al-Zarwani was published in Arabic by Inkyfada on March 18, 2026.
It is available here.
Inkyfada is an independent, non-profit Tunisian web magazine founded in 2014 that specializes in investigative journalism, data journalism, and digital storytelling.
Summary by TMH
The city that forgot it was built on water
Dhaka was once defined by its waterways – restoring them, experts argue, could finally free the city from its gridlock
Those who live in Dhaka describe the rush hour commute as “urban hell”. The capital of Bangladesh is the second most populous city on earth, home to an estimated 36.6 million people. It is also said to be the slowest city, with road traffic crawling at 4.8km per hour. Al Amin Tusher, writing for Netra News, says it feels like “a life sentence”.
He describes the experience of boarding a local bus: “there is barely room to stand inside... Horns blare relentlessly. The bus lurches forward, pauses, crawls, and jerks again. The inertia is constant, testing the body’s ability to absorb shocks.”
Now, perhaps, a solution has emerged: Dhaka’s waterways, many of which have been covered up with concrete in recent decades. (Some striking maps in the article show the situation from 1960 to now). Could re-opening these waterways solve the city’s traffic crisis? “Dhaka is at a critical juncture”, transport specialist Dr Hadiuzzaman tells Netra News. The entire city lies within a ring of water 110 kilometres in circumference, he explains. If all the waterways within this circle were connected, the resulting 450-kilometre network - Tusher uses the word “artery” - could reduce pressure on the roads by 30 per cent.
The destruction of the waterways wasn’t purely accidental, argues urban planner Iqbal Habib, but is rather the result of greed, corruption and over development. He recalls a 1996 attempt to restore Dhanmondi Lake - which ended up leading to the construction of a shopping centre instead: “A mess of structures was then built to engulf this water channel. There was no way to think about how it might be restored again.”
In the 1980s, the Begunbari Canal was concreted over to build the Panthapath Road. Reducing natural flow of water has increased run-off in the monsoon, increasing the risk of flash floods, while also trapping sediment. (The city is now removing 200,000 tons of sludge from the Hatirjheel and Panthapath areas).
Netra News describes the situation as a “painful case of bureaucratic neglect”. A 2016 decision to restore the waterways has met with little progress. The project director said he had not been given any directives to proceed. To achieve the task, he tells Tusher, “one would have to tear apart the existing infrastructure and plan a new city”.
A new government has taken office in Bangladesh in recent days. Will they rise to the challenge?
The original article ‘Why Dhaka’s Waterways Matter More Than Flyovers’ by Al Amin Tusher, was published in English by Netra News on March 22, 2026. It is available here.
Netra News is an independent, non-profit Bangladeshi digital news outlet founded in 2012 that specialises in investigative journalism and in-depth reporting on Bangladesh. Based in Sweden, it was founded by Tasneem Khalil, an exiled Bangladeshi journalist, who serves as their editor-in-chief.
Summary by TMH
Issue #3 is available now!
On Wednesday 22 April, we launched Translator Issue #3 – you can order your copy now.
Inside, you’ll find stories from across the world: a Korean middle school on the political frontline, the world of gaming in 1980s Hungary, the fragile ecology (and mystery) of eels in northern Italy, the culture of shamans on the border of China and Vietnam, a searing investigation into Romania’s aesthetic gynaecology industry and Translator’s original Street Talks give voice to hyperlocal stories from Tehran, Karachi, Kyoto, Gaza and Bangalore – all illustrated by artists from around the world.
Plus: Abdul Bacet’s photo essay on Babur’s Gardens in Kabul, an interview with Abeera Kamran and Zeerak Ahmed on digitising the Urdu script, a multilingual crossword, and reviews of Polly Barton’s debut novel and Alexander Voloshin’s migration memoir.
Support Translator to continue translating and publishing long-form reportage and journalism from beyond the Anglosphere by purchasing your copy of Issue #3 here.