June Hyde draws on her bilingual upbringing to inform a kaleidoscope of performances.

standing with her toes at the edge of the stage, June Hyde turns to ask the lighting operator in Finnish if we could have more illumination. A brief pause, before gentle light fades the rows of seats into focus, and we commence her photo shoot. Here, at the focal point of Helsinki City Theatre, she is at home. Hyde effortlessly switches back to English, with her perfect British accent giving little away of the fact she has lived the overwhelming majority of her life in Finland.

Although she has recently dedicated her career to conducting policy research on the quality of life of the foreign community in the Central Baltic Sea Region (CBSR), these days, Christine Chang doesn’t feel that much of an expat here anymore.

A Serbian theatre legend in our midst.

THE CAREER of Serbian actress Svetlana Bojković has spanned nearly 40 years in television, film, and most importantly, theatre. She is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award Dobričin Prsten, and is regarded as one of the great ladies of the Serbian cultural scene. She currently calls Helsinki home, and is here not on an acting engagement, but in a somewhat different capacity – as the wife of the Serbian ambassador to Finland, Slavko Kruljević. It seemed appropriate, then, to take this opportunity to speak with her about life and culture in Serbia and Finland.

Currently living here in exile, the man Uday Hussein dubbed ‘The Hassler Journalist’ will not remain tight-lipped about the brutality of his imprisonment in Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

WHEN SixDegrees met Hussein al-Maadidi and his translator Ahmed Essouli at a pub in the Helsinki Central Railway Station, what had started off as a calm, sunny day in Helsinki swiftly turned into a dark and cramped prison cell in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, as Hussein explained his first-hand encounter with the torture and madness that prevailed inside the prison walls.

Telling stories has taken Michael Franck to Tehran, Hollywood and back again over the years.

HAVING arrived spot-on our agreed time, as we stand in the kitchen of the office that houses documentary filmmaker Michael Franck’s family business, Franck Media, the sharply dressed media producer and director is currently busily attending to the espresso machine.