FRESH BLOOD: With the Best Intentions 2020
Five fresh short films on the theme "With the best intentions" from even fresher Estonian directors.
Five fresh short films on the theme "With the best intentions" from even fresher Estonian directors.
A snapshot of one segment of Estonian present-day life, shown through the eyes of a child: 8 years old Lucia is leading a jolly and naughty Pippi-Longstocking-style life in a small town in Estonia. Her father Kaido, a graveyard keeper, can hardly provide for the family, her mother Maria is a drunk. Then the family receives an unexpected invitation to spend a week in Finland, in the house of the female pastor Sipra. This week will change everybody's life in unexpected ways...
Two young ladybirds Tim and Mia are unexpectedly taken into a human family’s house together with a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Tim and Mia set about seeking the way back to the forest.
Half the film was shot with a video camera taken from a television station without permission, the cast and staff were unpaid, and the script was written as a screenwriting class assignment.
An absurdist court drama where a mother and a father, ex-spouses, fight over the custody of their 5-year old son. However, the whole process takes place in the middle of a grain field instead of the classic court room. On that field the courtroom has no boundaries much like the mother and father whose actual goal is to exact vengeance on each other with no regard to the means used, forgetting their child entirely.
One night there gather weird figures to the Karahundzhi Palteau. They are the figures of God created by Man in different times and cultures - puppets. At the same time in some technical center they are printing out all letter combinations in all known languages. According to Tibetan monks this act - writing down all the names of God - will bring along the end of the universe. The Creator has decided to introduce the gods to each other before the great end.
Autumn 1944, Estonia. Tens of thousands of people leave their homeland in fear of approaching frontline. Some seashore villages remain completely empty. A young woman with huge grey eyes gets off the boat. Eetla leaves the last boat, thus giving up her last chance to escape. Defying the cold wind and rain of September, she returns to the lighthouse which is unexpected to her father Gottfrid, the lighthouse keeper, and herself. Eetla's return becomes her self-encounter and self-recognition.
Viktor Kingissepp has been the underground head of the Communist Party of Estonia for three years. He corresponds with Moscow, writes speeches for the members of the Communist Workers' Party and makes leaflets for the events of trade union. His purpose is to overthrow the Republic of Estonia since he does not believe in Estonian independence nor in any national ideals. Yet the clock keeps ticking, tuberculosis spreads rapidly, the world revolution is being postponed. What to do in order to make one's efforts work?
A documentary about a group of activists in Tallinn who try to improve their quarter.
One sleepy Saturday morning a 30-year-old construction worker Erik gets some earth shattering news: his ex-girlfriend Moonika who he hasn't even seen for the past six months is about to go into labor. She however is not ready for motherhood and if Erik doesn't want the kid either, the little girl will be put up for adoption.
When Miina, a seemingly well-off woman is caught shoplifting, the female officer truly uses her chance to show off her contempt. She sees a rival in the shoplifter and decides to teach Miina a lesson. Surprisingly, both women meet just a few hours later in a situation where the previous rivals become partners in crime and must trust their fates in the hands of each other.
For Estonian-based filmmaker Volia Chaikouskaya, the 2020 Belarus uprising was not just news – it was personal. While thousands in Minsk rose up against the brutal regime of Alexander Lukashenko and rallied behind opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Volia felt the same pulse across borders. Unable to return home, she became both observer and participant, organising solidarity actions in Tallinn and gradually stepping into her own film as a subject. At the heart of the story are three women – Sviatlana, Nadzeya, and Masha – whose husbands were jailed as political prisoners and who themselves emerged as central figures of the movement. Their fearless defiance against dictatorship mirrored Volia’s own struggle to break free from the inherited fear of silencing, repression, and exile.
Liina is a young actress at Vanemuise Theatre who gets Tiina's part in the new, postmodernist version of the play "Werewolf" by August Kitzberg. The theatre is haunted and the rehearsals seem to be cursed, artificial blood becomes real blood. The play won't be complete before the murder mystery is unsolved - and Liina is being taken back to the old theatre legends and intrigues of the past century.
In 2007, the artist Jaan Toomik says that the ideas that brought him success no longer attract him. He wants to do something new - a feature film. It doesn't have a concrete form yet, and until it takes shape, he makes sketches. He films, paints, analyzes, but it's all like an echo from the past. The future is hidden in his inner world, where he does not let others. Art is born from loneliness, is his realization.
Imagine a mix of Repo Man, Oliver! and Pinocchio and you're on the road to grasping the tone of this bizarre Estonian take on Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy's character Buratino, a wooden boy (or boyus woodenus, as the doctors in the film refer to him). Buratino's virginal mother wishes upon a star for a son and is immediately answered by what can only be called a rape-splinter. The woman gives birth almost immediately to her little wooden Buratino.
Estonia in a turbulent era of change. Citizen A, a modest, indecisive person, with great difficulty and inner fear fits into the changed realities of the world around him. And he constantly finds himself in various absurd situations.
Hendrik is a responsible public servant who is deeply in love with his beautiful wife Evelin. Evelin, however, finds their protected life boring; she wants Hendrik to do something more exciting. When he returns from his business trip, Hendrik will find his schoolmate Berg in their balcony and will furiously throw his gloves to Berg's face. Soon it will turn out that this has been the challenge accepted.
The movie tells a story of a journey of two start-up entrepreneurs from their "garage" to Silicon Valley.
In post-World War II Estonia, Mait Kukemeri, an activist of the Young Communist League arrives to the Metsa collective farm in the back of a traveling cinema truck. As a commissary of the spring sowing, he has orders to usher all the people to the field, even if the water is high enough to soak your boots and the machines sink in the mud. Harald Tuvikene, the head of the farm, keeps dragging his feet, trying to pitch his peasant wisdom against the senseless demands of the central power. For the first time in his life, Kukemeri faces a real problem - does he do what's right or does he follow the party's inept commands in order to further his own career?
An exploration of the growing friendship between small-town girl Laura, who is persuaded onto a hiking trip by her friend Merit, and Joosep, a middle-aged guide.
Eurolaul was an annual televised competition to select a song to represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest made by the Estonian Public Television Service ETV. For many years the competition differed from the national selections of most other countries in that the outcome was solely determined by an international jury. The rules were changed to entrust the Estonian public with the choice by means of televoting in 2004 and 2005, but due to the disappointing results in the ESC in those years there was a return to the former system in 2006. Eurolaul also selected Tanel Padar and Dave Benton's song "Everybody" in 2001, which went on to win the contest for Estonia. In 2009, Eurolaul was discontinued after a long period of bad results for Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest and was replaced with a new contest entitled Eesti Laul.
Newly appointed court assessor Paul von Fock, heir to Sagadi Manor, navigates a web of murders, missing fortunes, and identity puzzles with the aid of the mysterious Maria von Nottbeck, whom he helps unmask in a shocking finale.
In a humorous tone, "Ment" (Russian criminals called militiamen in Soviet-era slang) tells the story of the daily life of an ordinary police officer.
A family with two smart twin boys has lived in the most amazing places in the world and tried to fit in as locals while surviving in Siberian ecovillage of a religious leader Vissarion, setting up a yurt village in China, building unlikely friendships in Australia and now trying to fit in Muslim community in Iran.
If you have the greatest wife on Earth and you are the lousiest man, who are you? The husband of Tuuli Roosma. One day Arbo is fed up with living in the shadow of his wife. He puts his foot down and starts a new life.
Estonia's women's swimming team is stripped of their Olympic medals because of doping, and a scandal begins. With the help of Martin Kütt, an internationally renowned crisis expert, the team aims to solve the disaster. However, as Martin investigates the doping, it emerges that even government officials are involved in the affair.
A great and unprecedented domestic love story, where in addition to romantic moments of love, there are also many adventures and surprising turns! The main parts of the wonderful series are Marko Matvere and the rising stars Desiree Mumm, Liset Loigu and Oskar Seeman.
Eesti Laul is the national final in order to select the Estonian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Two completely opposite young ladies are forced to work together and solve very different cases. Kadri (Kristel Aaslaid), who takes police work extremely seriously, and Doris (Grete Kuld), who skilfully manipulates her good looks and feminine charms, want to prove to each other that their methods are the best way to make a career in a man's world.