Traitor’s Imaginative Take on Real-Life Spy Scandals

Writer Martin Algus and actor Tambet Tuisk talk to TV Drama about the Estonian espionage series Traitor, imbuing its antihero with humanity and taking a local story global.

Estonia’s first espionage series, Traitor takes its inspiration from real-life historical scandals that shook the nation as it joined NATO in 2004 and became a target of Russian intelligence. It centers on the unscrupulous but charming Alfred Vint, an official at the Estonian Ministry of Defence who becomes a Russian spy.

Algus came to be involved in the project at its inception, when the Estonian multiservice provider Elisa reached out to him and proposed that he write a spy thriller inspired by real-life events. “I instantly realized that this was a really good chance for me to do something serious,” says Algus, who explains that most Estonian TV falls into a more comedic space. “The topic itself is important for Estonians and for myself because we have had these kinds of spy scandals almost all of the time during our independence, and they always catch a lot of attention. I thought I could bring some human parts to this topic, like who is this person, what is the character of that traitor? How does a person become a traitor? This is not an instant transformation. It was interesting for me to get into the head of this traitor and start to follow the little things and wonder what is happening with this person.”

Tuisk, who came onboard Traitor only two months before filming commenced for its first season, was a natural fit for the role, according to Algus. For his part, Tuisk was keen to join the project after reading just the first part of Algus’s script. “When I’m reading scripts, I’m trying to read them like a story—not to take this kind of actor’s view [of] what I can play—just trying to understand the main story, the main plots,” says Tuisk. “Is it interesting and how does it get me emotionally? This script really got me from the beginning.”

When Tuisk reread the script from an actor’s perspective, considering how to play his character, he dove into his own memories of the time in which Traitor is set and did his due diligence with regards to research on the spy scandals to have a firm grasp on what had actually taken place. “Background gives, for me, more imagination,” Tuisk explains. “How can I develop that kind of person, [take] what really happened and use it for myself?”

Approaching the script, Algus, too, used a blend of memory, research and imagination. Due to the subject matter, he knew that in order to avoid any legal complications no real-life spy’s story could be recognizable within the series. “This is one side of the story for me, how to walk on this narrow road,” says Algus. “On one side, there are real facts and real life and on the other, my own imagination to combine the story with these tools.”

Key to the story that Algus took to the screen is the traitor, Alfred. “This main character is a bad guy. He does lots of harm to the country and his relatives, to everybody who surrounds him,” explains the writer of the fictional spy. “But it was important for us at the same time that he was charming. Tambet is the ideal combination of this. He could play this evil guy very charmingly.”

Tuisk, who has played real-life characters before, steers clear of trying to imitate anyone in particular, using the script and his acting instincts to make Alfred come alive. “For me, acting is translating, and I was searching things that this character Alfred was doing there [in the script] and for answers from myself, putting myself into these kinds of positions,” says Tuisk. “For actors, these are the best parts. Be charming and bad.”

Characters like Alfred, complicated antihero protagonists, are popular with audiences “because they’re not so black and white,” says Tuisk. “I’ve also played characters that are bad or good—too good or too bad. It’s one color. As [a viewer], I already know he is like that but…if they are more like human beings, they are more charming, you can see their ups and downs, it makes them more attractive.”

Central to the GoQuest Media-distributed series’ international appeal is “the timeless themes of a person caught between two fires and he can’t go back, and this thriller story behind the historical story, which I hope is also understandable outside of Estonia,” says Algus, who also believes global audiences will be intrigued by the NATO theme throughout the series.

Tuisk adds, “In Estonia, a small country, we have lots of stories like everywhere [else], and we have to do our stories. If they’re interesting stories for us—for actors, scriptwriters and directors—then I think there is a possibility that they are interesting also for the audience. It doesn’t matter if they’re from Asia or the States or somewhere else.”

Filming for the second season of Traitor wrapped earlier this year.