Feature films

The Joys of Midlife

Two well-off married couples have reached the understanding that something is wrong in their lives. They pin their hopes on Nigul, a famous healer living in southern Estonia. Together with Helena, who is better equipped with esoteric knowledge, they set off for a cross-country car trip on a nice summer day. When they arrive at their destination, the couples face a surprise.

The Confession

Priest Giorgi, a former Film Director, is sent to serve the small parish in the mountain village. To bring villagers closer to church he starts showing films there. After the screening of the first picture – “Some Like It Hot” – the audience imply that the local music teacher Lili looks exactly like Marilyn Monroe. After meeting Lili, Father Giorgi’s balance between cleric and secular world starts to quiver – the woman is extremely sexy and the temptation is difficult to resist.

Chasing Ponies

This road movie is about life. It is loosely based on the adventures of real Eastern European university students selling books door to door in United States. This movie touches us all, as summer work in the US has become something of a phenomenon among students in Europe - everyone knows someone who has spent a summer in USA - some experiences good, some not so good, each a story in it's own right. This movie is your chance to experience their adventures firsthand. Without sacrificing 3 months of your life. Filming took place in September 2015. It was all done within 3 weeks, in California and Nevada, guerilla-style. This meant a small, enthusiastic and dedicated team, 18 hour days, (almost) no budget, figuring things out on the fly and using as much of "real USA" as possible.

Georg

The life of Georg Ots (1920-1975), the most well-known Estonian opera singer, was full of changes and difficulties. He started with the career of an engineer; later during the times of war he found himself as a musician in Yaroslavl. Georg Ots's extraordinary talent and dedication made him a nationwide star in the whole Soviet Union; however, there are two sides of every coin. It is a very personal story about love and marriage, celebrity and jealousy, self-realization and self-destruction.

The Fencer

In 1952 a young fencing champion Endel arrives in a small town Haapsalu to work as a physical training teacher. For an introvert man it is hard to get contact with the children who have been through a lot. In spite of the opposition of the principal of the school, Endel manages to get a permit to teach fencing for children. Slowly it becomes a therapy for the children as well as the teacher himself – a way to deal with everyday grim. The defeated principal is holding a grudge and starts to investigate, why did the champion of the Soviet Union really come to a small town. “The Fencer” is partly based on true life events of an Estonian sportsman and coach Endel Nelis (1925-1993)

Landscape with Many Moons

The director of the film is the renowned artist Jaan Toomik who in his first feature film deals with the same questions which he has addressed during his career as an artist – the topics of death and sexuality, body transformations, the relationship between reality and the dream-like, predominant human fears and alienation from yourself and the world.

The Spy And The Poet

Lonely secret service officer Gustav meets a mysterious gypsy woman. It soon comes clear that it is a trap set by the Russian intelligence. Gustav is ordered to continue the relationship to get a better understanding of the enemy’s plans. Unfortunately, Gustav finds himself struggling with the task, as he is falling in love with the enemy. Is there a way out of this situation?

Zero Point

Sensitive and restless Johannes is accepted to an elite school in the city and expects life to go uphill. Instead, he becomes the victim of mental abuse by his classmates. In search of recognition, he goes to his old friends from suburbs, who spend their time doing drugs, hanging around, and partying, rather than focusing on schoolwork. At home, Johannes must deal with his mother’s deteriorating mental health. As the tension grows, he finds himself at zero point, where he must completely reset his life to build it up from scratch. After being denounced as an outcast in school and frightened away from home by his mother’s developing schizophrenia, there is no other way out for Johannes but to start improving his life by reforming himself.

In the Crosswind

14 June 1941. Without warning tens of thousands of people in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were removed from their homes. Without any sort of trial men faced being sent to prison camps and women and children were deported to Siberia. The aim of this extraordinary operation – carried out on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin – was to purge the Baltic countries of their native inhabitants. Erna, happily married and the mother of a young daughter, is sent to Siberia. For her, time takes on another dimension. Fighting starvation and humiliation in inhuman conditions, her soul seeks and finds freedom in the letters she sends to her husband who has been sentenced to prison camp. Even so, the years in Siberia rob Erna of something much more precious than just her youth. This film is based on a true story and uses extraordinary visual techniques and language to tell the heart-wrenching tale of the fate of thousands of Estonians.

Portugal

Karina and Martin are in a pleasant relation where everyday life flows in an effortlessly accustomed way and no small misbehavior can shake it’s rush. Life is good. Perhaps it’s this perfection and frequent patterns that make them finally pose a question – is everything to be expected in life? This is a story about following the yearning of your soul. Longing for something other than the present and having the courage to be deliberately lost. The characters in the film are looking for a place of love and understanding in the world. Their journey is playful, mellow and thoroughly human. It is full of mistakes, but also possibilities for new beginnings, and colorful personalities who all share a common goal – to find happiness. Because there is only one way home, and that is to continue traveling. This adventurous and soulful story with comedic beats is a feature film debut by acclaimed actor and stage director Lauri Lagle.

Tangerines

“Tangerines” is the spare yet haunting tale of an older Estonian man who cares for two wounded soldiers from opposite sides of the 1990s-era war in Georgia. The film reveals compassion to be the ultimate response to centuries of political, cultural and ethnic conflict, a compellingly relevant message for contemporary audiences.

Kalev

It’s the summer of 1990. The Soviet Union is teetering on the verge of collapse, while the little Baltic nations struggle to take back their lost independence. The Soviet Union`s basketball championship is set to begin on the backdrop of a deeply divided society. The Estonian team Kalev faces a momentous decision. With Estonian independence seemingly within reach, a rising tide of public opinion opposes the Estonian national team’s participation in the USSR’s championship. That would contradict the people’s aspirations for liberation. As professional athletes, the team makes the unpopular choice. The championship games start…

Take it or leave it

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 labour. 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. Take it or leave it! The film is made the frame of EV100 Programme dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia.

Mushrooming

Politician Aadu and his wife set out to pick mushrooms on a day when he gets a call from a journalist confronting him with regard to suspected corruption. By coincidence the married couple find themselves in a car with a pompous rock idol named Zäk. After discovering that the spot his wife has chosen to pick mushrooms is full of vacationers, Aadu decides to find a quieter place. The woods where he ultimately ends up, however, are perhaps too deep and inhospitable, and finding a way out may not be easy….

Ruudi

Ruudi and his mother Karmen live in the island of Saaremaa. She works as a police officer. There has never been a father in their home. Ruudi has a great passion - vikings - and he is thrilled when a sail on a real viking ship is being held at a fair. Unfortunately it turns out that boys of his age must be accompanied by their fathers. Ruudi with the help of his friend Vika will start looking for a father for himself.

Scary Mother

A 50-year-old housewife, Manana, struggles with her dilemma – she has to choose between her family life and her passion, writing, which she had repressed for years – she decides to follow her passion and plunges herself into writing, sacrificing to it mentally and physically.

Graveyard Keeper's Daughter

Lucia leads a carefree life in a small town of Estonia but her grades at school are not that good so the teachers are worried. Lucia's father Kaido is a graveyard keeper and repairs cars in the meantime; her mother Maria has lost her job and since then been drinking with her unemployed friends. Neither of them has time to help Lucia with her school. The child protection inspector is about to check their case when the family is unexpectedly invited to visit a Finnish family. They spend a week with priest Sirpa's family after which Lucia will have a completely different idea of a home. When they return Estonia their life will change and Lucia has to choose which home she wants to live in.

All My Lenins

Young and active nationalist Aleksander Kesküla makes up his mind to use Lenin, the Bolsheviks' leader, in order to start a revolution in Russia with German money and create a new national state of Estonia in the north-east of Russia. For security reasons, five counterparts will be found and trained for Lenin; all of them are finally sent to Russia for participating in the revolution. How will the real Lenin put up with all this? How will the surrounding women and fellow fighters react? These are the questions clever Kesküla is asking - and the answers will be born even before those involved start thinking of the matter.

Georgica

Story about the silent Boy who is sent for medical treatment to Jakub, a former colonial missionary living on an island that is also a military training area. Jakub is the only civilian there. He has to make observations during the bombing at night and phone the headquarters about the results. The observation spot is located in the tower of a church in ruins where Jakub makes silage. The missionary - an old horse - tramples silage in the church tower. There are beehives inside of the church. Jakub plays the organ, singing chorals and the Boy pumps the organ bellows by foot. Their home is inside of an old airplane hangar where Jakub translates "Georgica" by Vergilius from Latin into Swahili in order to be able to take the book to Africa some day. "And then joy will come.. And peace.... And wealth will come as well...".

Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway

Special Agent DT Gagano dreams of leaving the CIA to open a business with his wife Malin. The night he’s about to present his resignation letter a strange cyber virus attacks the agency’s operating system effectively sidetracking his plans. Traveling into virtual reality dimensions, Gagano and his partner will infiltrate the system to eradicate the virus. Things however, will not go as planned when the virus takes over the system and starts creating games to compete against itself, leaving the entire world’s stability in jeopardy. Are Gagano and the CIA peons in these sinister games? While the virus capabilities start reaching out into the real world, developing obscure and complex political plots, Gagano, trapped in the virtual reality must find a way to guarantee his escape and his survival only to discover that nothing is what it seems.

Free Money

A semi-satirical comedy about the absurdity of money, telling three loosely interconnected stories about crypto and the last few years when investing has become a form of entertainment and ordinary folk are trading in stocks and coins.

Jüri Rumm

Jüri, a servant to a nobleman, faces punishment for pilfering food behind the baron’s back to aid his ailing father. Swearing vengeance, he flees the manor astride a stolen horse, deftly evading pursuers time and again by assuming various disguises. His romance with Madli, another servant at the manor, imbues the tale with intrigue, ultimately sealing the fate of the cunning fugitive. “Jüri Rumm” unfolds as a satirical adventure film chronicling the exploits of a legendary Estonian thief during the latter half of the 19th century, who ascended to the status of a folk hero akin to a local Robin Hood – redistributing wealth from the affluent to the impoverished. In the early 20th century, his vibrant persona sparked a series of stage productions and literary works. Primarily drawn from Hans Varessoo’s (pseudonym) 1908 novel and the first volume (1921) of Jaan Metua’s trilogy of plays, the screenplay of the film is attributed to Mikhail Lepper. Lepper, the first Estonian to study under Georg Wilhelm Pabst and work with Fritz Lang in the early 1920s, later emigrated to Sweden and pursued a career in photojournalism. “Jüri Rumm” was digitised in 6K and restored in 4K at the Film Archive of the National Archives of Estonia in 2023, using the original nitrate negative, three surviving reels of a nitrate release print and a reel of a later-generation safety print. Regrettably, the fourth reel remains lost. Initially released as a silent feature with live accompaniment in December 1929, “Jüri Rumm” made its debut in two installments. The first part ran for seven days, starting from 11 December at Grand-Marina and Rekord cinemas in Tallinn, followed by the second part, which was shown for six days starting from 18 December. For the subsequent distribution in Tallinn and elsewhere, the two parts were edited together. The music accompanying this presentation of “Jüri Rumm” was composed and performed by Stephen Horne (UK, piano) and Frank Bockius (Germany, percussion) in 2023. Horne and Bockius are internationally acclaimed silent film musicians who regularly perform at film heritage festivals around the world. The production and recording of the soundtrack was supported by Estonian Cultural Endowment.

Fire Lily

Maria Avdjushko’s debut feature Fire Lily tells a psychological and thrilling story of Pia - an ophthalmologist, trying to find her way after a childless marriage has ended. Her ex-husband has moved on and has already found a new wife, who is able to have children. Pia has the “good girl syndrome” - a successful career, helps her divaesque mother and little sister, takes care of her best friend’s child and has little time to think of herself. She yearns for a relationship and a child. Seemingly she finds the perfect man, but she is cautious. At the same time strange things start to happen around her and it seems like something out-of-this-world is trying to protect her to the point of violence. After one of such violent encounters, she is told that she is pregnant, although it is not biologically possible. Her deepest wish materializes, but not quite in the way she imagined it. Should we be careful about what we wish for? What sort of reality gives our life meaning?

The Chuck Band Show

Each year six in 100,000 men are diagnosed with testicular cancer. But this time cancer picked the wrong man. Inspired by a true story, “The Chuck Band Show” is a funny, touching and unprecedented story about honesty and self-discovery. The protagonist of the film is a real loser – radio DJ Chuck Berger. His wife wants to leave him, his boss wants to fire him, and if this wasn’t enough – his testicle wants to kill him. After getting diagnosed with testicular cancer, Chuck’s afraid he’ll be a man without any balls whatsoever. While starting to fight this difficult disease, Chuck discovers the power of humor and honesty. But will his wife Helena – who was considering divorcing him – and other people close to him remain true to themselves on this journey? When Chuck informs his boss, Hendrik, about his situation, the two men form an unexpected friendship. The head of the radio station encourages Chuck to as honest as possible to his listeners. As he bares his soul and makes people laugh, his radio show, “The Chuck Band Show”, becomes extremely popular.

Deserted

On an assignment to the abandoned, lawless and apocalyptic Sinai coast a Swedish photo journalist Ingrid is kidnapped by a gang of Palestinian men and hidden in the desert. Soon Ingrid finds herself falling in love with the most sympathetic of the abductors, Ali (Ali Suliman). Ali's boss Moussa suspects that something is going on and becomes increasingly dangerous.

Mother

This darkly comic, crime mystery set in small-town Estonia centers on Elsa, the full time caretaker of her comatose son, Lauri, and the locals, who are abuzz with rumors about who shot Lauri and why. But in this tight-knit town, where everyone seems to know everyone and everything except for what's right under their nose, the world's clumsiest crime may go unsolved.

Truth and Justice

Estonia, 1870. Young and staunch Andres along with his wife Krõõt arrive at a farm bought on a loan to establish their new life. Desolate and neglected between the marshes, Robber’s Rise must be transformed into a place that will take care of the family. All they have to do is to break the resistance of the barren land, make his neighbour cooperate, and raise an heir – a son to inherit his father’s life’s work. But when nature refuses to bend, the neighbour turns out to be a roughneck rival, and Krõõt keeps giving birth to daughters, Andres struggles to find the right way. In his desperate search for truth and justice – from the court, the tavern and the Bible, he sacrifices his family, his friends and eventually himself. The beautiful dream of prosperous and nurturing Robber’s Rise gives way to an obsession, resulting in none of the things Andres wanted and everything he was afraid of. The film is made the frame of EV100 Programme dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia.

Captain Volkonogov Escaped

Captain Fyodor Volkonogov, a well-respected and obedient USSR law enforcer, witnesses his peers being suspiciously questioned. Sensing his turn is approaching, he escapes and is soon on the run, hunted by his former colleagues. Vulnerable and hopeless, Fyodor comes to realize what he had been part of. Suddenly he gets a message from hell: after death he will be sentenced to eternal torments. The only way to avoid it is to repent and to find at least one person who will give him forgiveness. But time is running out and the manhunt is closing in on him.

Phantom Owl Forest

The new Estonian family adventure film “Phantom Owl Forest” talks about 10-year old girl Eia whose Christmas plans take an unexpected turn, when the city girl is brought to a mysterious Southern Estonian farm for the winter holiday. At first the girl does not even realize she will soon save a doomed prival forest, bring together two people in love and untangle a secret held closely in the family.

The Polar Boy

Mattias is a young talented photographer in his final year of secondary school, who has a dream to become a student of the Berlin Arts Academy. He unexpectedly falls in love with a wild red-haired beauty Hanna, who doesn't seem to take him seriously unless he proves to be just as adventurous and unpredictable as she is. Mattias risks his whole future by breaking the law together with Hanna but ends up destroying the girl he loves. Hanna appears to suffer from bipolar disorder, the most dangerous effects of which are triggered by alcohol and drugs. Saving Hanna from herself, Mattias commits a crime that could end up putting him behind bars. His only solution for avoiding jail time is to get himself declared irresponsible. To achieve that, Mattias would have to start faking the illness his girlfriend already has - bipolarity.

Undergods

Chino Moya takes apart everything that is hidden under the soft sun-stroked skin of a human being – blood, intestines, slime and bile and the inner angst between all. In a formerly unknown Lasnamäe district of "Blade Runner", there is blooming industry which uses human remains from the slavery business as raw material. In the multiple layers of the dystopic Lynchian future, we find people whose fears are eating them alive. Add a pinch of blood-thirstiness from the time of dog-eat-dog law, and we get a boundless fantasy world which has many times more to say about the human soul than any small social drama often can.

Free Range. Ballad on Approving of the World

Fred is an impetuous young journalist and budding writer for whom personal freedom is of the utmost importance. But when he gets fired from the newspaper for an out-of-line review of Malick’s The Tree of Life, and his girlfriend informs him that she is pregnant, Fred is forced to think seriously about what to do with his life. Should he accept the unexpected responsibility?

Douchebags

After getting fired from an advertising agency, the project manager Rain tries to make a new company. He tried to convince Andres, a film director to join in hopes of getting a feature film contract. Everything goes smoothly until the lies surface.

186 Kilometers

Jan Uuspõld is a talented actor who is not up to scratch due to his problems with alcohol. He makes up his mind to stop taking clownish roles and accepts a serious part in a play at Vanemuise theatre instead. His journey from Tallinn to Tartu becomes an unusual and in a way exaggerated voyage depicting the life and mentality of contemporary Estonia through various human natures, attitudes and ways of thinking. Next to the fictional characters numerous well-known Estonian public figures participate in the film, either as themselves or as performed by actors or other celebrities. The story of the main character has been inspired by the real events in Jan Uuspõld's life. The black comedy tells the dramatic and sad existential story typical to the Nordic countries.

The Man Who Looks Like Me

A music critic Hugo, suffering from post-divorce depression, is just about to rebuild his life when his jazz musician father Raivo arrives at his door unexpectedly. When an attractive psychotherapist enters the men’s lives, the father and son duo begin to compete for her attention.

Farts of Fury

Kaiser, the lead singer of a former rock group won't put up with approaching old age and decides to call his old band members together. Kaiser's ambition is to return to the big stage with his buddies. Despite the initial resistance of other fellows, Kaiser will be successful, at least partly so. It is a fast-paced comedy full of humor and consolation, telling the story about people who despite all obstacles strive for their goal.

Cherry Tobacco

Cherry Tobacco is a youthful relationship drama about falling in love for the first time. For psychological reasons and because of societal norms, making decisions becomes much more difficult – especially if the feelings that are awakening are directed towards an older man. Forbidden love is a lot like war – there are no right choices.

Corrida

Olav Neuland’s Corrida from 1982 has the initial makings of a chamber drama – a lonely island, three people and a herd of animals. Man against wild nature, his urges, fears, and desires. Osvald Rass (Rein Aren), a man in his sixties, his wife Ragne (Rita Raave) who is about half his age and full of life, and her ex-lover Tarmo (Sulev Luik), have reached a decisive point in their lives where important choices need to be made. The isolation of a lonely island sets the characters face to face with each other, depriving them of social safety measures. It should help them to evolve eternally, but whatever they have brought to the island is of no help any longer. The rudimentary animality that manifests itself in various ways in this situation, strongly challenges the habitual rationale.

Child Machine

9-year old girl, vacationing with her parents in a remote bog, gets trapped in a secret bunker where an AI-startup is nearing the completion of a superintelligent AI. Both the girl and the AI want to escape. Child Machine is an AI-gone-wrong story that’s authentic, fun and interesting for all ages, made to be watched by young adults as well as their parents.

Waves of Passion

Rex Ronney, a Brazilian writer, infiltrates a gang of alcohol smugglers in the Gulf of Finland as a source of inspiration and research for his next novel. In the midst of his adventures, Rex will also find love.

The midsummer of 1930 brought to Estonia the most spectacular film production of the interwar period, which was also the country’s first international coproduction. In cooperation with experienced German filmmakers, a large part of Waves of Passion (Wellen der Leidenschaft) was shot in Tallinn, around Loksa and on the island of Hara in late June and early July.

The stars of this story about alcohol smuggling and passionate love are Vladimir Gaidarov, a heartbreaker born in Poltava, Ukraine, and Ita Rina, a stunning Slovenian film star then making waves in the Central European film world. In mass scenes, local border guards and the people of the Loksa area were used as extras. Of the Estonian stage talents, Hugo Laur, Ants Eskola and Robert Rood appeared in the film.

Gaidarov, who had started his acting career at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1910s, was familiar to Estonian audiences from the stage, having guest-starred here in 1921 at the invitation of Paul Pinna, and even more so from the silver screen, having performed in German films made by famous directors such as Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and Carl Theodor Dreyer, while residing in Berlin between 1921 and 1933. Waves of Passion was Gaidarov’s debut (and only) work as a film director and producer, made under the aegis of his newly formed German production company, Wladimir Gaidarow-Film, and the Estonian company A/S Urania. The latter was also founded specifically for Waves of Passion by the then-representative of the U.S. Fox Corporation in Estonia, Richard Ley, along with Sigrid Ley and Roman Birkenberg, all residents of Tallinn and citizens of Estonia. Thus, it can be said that Waves of Passion was one of the first films made in Estonia under the supervision of a female producer (although not quite the first, as the adventure film Jüri Rumm, which had premiered a year earlier, was financed by Ida Jershova).

Waves of Passion was released in Estonia as a silent film, accompanied by live orchestral music, and premiered simultaneously in three major cinemas in Tallinn (Bi-Ba-Bo, Kungla and Rekord) for a whole week, which was quite unusual at the time. In Germany, but also in countries such as Argentina and Denmark, it was distributed with a synchronised soundtrack, consisting of sound effects and music composed by the Austrian composer Bert Reisfeld, and produced using a sound-on-disc system. It was in the Danish Film Institute’s Film Archive that this recording, long thought lost, was found in 2022 – albeit only in part, as four of the original eight discs have survived. The original negative of the film is lost, but the Film Archive of the National Archives of Estonia preserves the only vintage film element known to survive: a contemporary Estonian nitrate release print with trilingual intertitles in Estonian, German and Russian.

This 4K digital restoration, completed in 2023 at the Film Archive of the National Archives of Estonia, is accompanied by the partially surviving original soundtrack and music composed in 2023 by Cornelius Renz.

The restoration was realised with the support of “A Season of Classic Films”, an initiative of ACE – Association des Cinémathèques Européennes, part of European Commission’s Creative Europe MEDIA programme.

An Awesome Tale

The fairy tale full of irony takes place in two neighbouring countries – Warlike Kingdom and Unhappy Kingdom – and tells about young lovers, sly intriguers and reckless warriors. The residents of the Warlike Kingdom cannot stop purposeless fighting, the habitants of Unhappy Kingdom keep complaining about their wretched fate. As if often happens in fairy tales, the princess of the Unhappy Kingdom falls in love with the young king of the Warlike Kingdom. After great adventures, these two meet thanks to a little wizard girl called Destiny. Ultimately, the war minister will understand that it is much better to save people than to kill them; the princess will find love and the devious spy gets a well-deserved punishment. The kingdoms start living in peace, welfare and happiness.

Lovable

Matiss is way too young to be suddenly left to care for his partner’s nine-year-old daughter. A responsibility like this reveals Matiss’ true nature, inner demons and a lack of relationships based on pure love.

Helene

Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1948) was Finland’s most popular female artist who has attracted international fame. She was not only a master of painting, but also an expert with words. This story is based on Helene’s love story with Einar Reuter.

Hit Big

On Spain’s Costa del Sol a Finnish family abandoned by a crime boss takes their own back by stealing the haul of a major heist.

Maria's Paradise

How to love a dangerous mother? A teenage orphan girl Salome lives within a sect lead by charismatic and ruthless Maria Åkerblom. During a pivotal summer, Salome is faced with standing up against Maria, the woman who had saved her.

Malev

The action of the adventurous historical comedy "Malev" takes place in the beginning of the 13th century Estonia and Livonia. The powerful troops of German Order try to conquer and baptise local nature people. The first educated Estonian, young man Uru needs to find a balance in himself between staying Estonian and becoming European. During his inner fight, Uru gets into a whirl of a complicated intrigues and crazy adventures, where the future of the homeland depends on him. Are the Estonians ready for the freedom? Why Estonia did not become an independent country already in the 13th century?

A Woman Heats the Sauna

The story is about a woman, who has to heat up the company’s sauna, because the bosses want to entertain foreign visitors. The sauna is situated in a small village where her ex-husband is from, and an old aunt of his is still living. In addition to having to face her bosses she also has to face her past.

Traces

Heino Raagen and his war comrades begin a new battle while arriving at their home village - establishing a collective farm. The sufferings and fears of the war have exhausted people; nevertheless, they still stick together and protect their close ones. Heino's girlfriend Valve hides the plans of her brother Robert hiding in the forest from him; as a result, their relationship will fall apart. Life goes on, but disappointment and anger will take their toll even when years have gone by.

Gladiator

Joonas and Tiidrik are two men from the island of Saaremaa who recklessly escape from the German prison during the First World War. Yet, there are no peaceful times in their home country. Joonas has hard times when coming back home - his efforts to improve the living conditions of his family will fail. It is namely the successful people who betray Joonas so that he has to face a real gladiator fight in order to understand the important things in life.

The Männard Family

The story takes place right before the Uprising of December 1st, 1924. The Männard family remains faithful to the proletariat and the Neider family dreams about having a private house and opening a small business of their own.

The Girl in Black

Young Saale, the girl in black with her small suitcase, comes to live with her aunt in a fishermen's village. Her only precious thing is a glass ball that is a memory of her mother whose death has left Saale alone in the world. She has been repelled and humiliated, so she is not expecting anything good to come from people. For her surprise, young fisherman Tanel is ready to walk with her by the sea even if they won't speak a word. He doesn't think Saale is strange and he won't ridicule her for her religious views. Slowly, Saale opens up for the bright sides of earthly life.

Ice Run

Two proud fisherman families live on a very small island in Estonia. The two fishermen have always bore a grudge against each other. Their stubbornness and disobedience to German occupiers leads to dramatic events where staying alive is worse than death. Since it is impossible to escape public contempt, they have to decide how to redeem themselves.

We Were Eighteen

After the Coup of June, the unanimous group of graduates of a small-town high school in Estonia fall into two groups opposed to each other. Due to political views, two young people in love - Elmar and Virve - will be separated. Elmar comes from a poor family and joins the Communists; Virve, from the family of intellectuals wants to keep faith in her native land. However, they will experience that emotions and ideas are two separate things. Tough times require tough decisions.

The Sun and the Rain

Jaak is a young labourer always facing some kind of issues and it seems he always rides for a fall. At the construction work of a new thermal power station, Jaak meets young people from the Young Communist League who won't find faults with him and are ready to help him out. Jaak's second nature will slowly open up.

Chasing Unicorns

Based on true stories, this is comedy-drama about a female founder trying to make it in a male-dominated tech world. Õie, an accountant from a small town accidentally stumbles into the tech scene of her home-country Estonia — a place where startups are a “national sport” and almost everyone has one. She is joined by a serial failure Tõnu, who is always trying one more time. Fast-paced and fun movie, based on true stories of startup founders, gives an authentic picture of the highs and lows of the crazy tech world, from Estonia to Silicon Valley — and back.

Letters to Angel

The story of a man who was sent to fight in Afghanistan years ago, where he converted to Islam. He now returns home only to find himself facing another kind of war.The front line in the decrepit Estonian town runs between Eastern and Western culture, men and women, common sense and madness. Somewhere amidst these battles is his daughter, who Kirotaja has decided to find after all the years of absence. His only leads are the sound of his daughter crying, heard once on the telephone, and a dog-eared notebook full of letters addressed to her. But the town has other plans for him and the women running it seem to take him for their savior from the nagging feeling of emptiness that has enveloped them.

The Manslayer/The Virgin/The Shadow

The Manslayer employs a theme known in Scandinavian and Estonian folklore. The time frame of the story is from the early morning of a wedding day until the early morning of the following day. The characters are driven by force majeure – the local customs and rituals which were common a hundred years ago. The leading character Maara is a young bride who is about to start her life in her new family. The Virgin, set in the spring of 1949, tells the story of a young woman called Elina, who has been deported from Ingria into Estonia. In fear of being deported to Siberia, she enters into a fictitious marriage with an Estonian man named Heino. The wedded couple live in the verandah of the flat of Heino's uncle, each keeping to their respective corner and sleeping in separate beds. Someone informs the NKVD (the Soviet law enforcement agency) of the fictitious marriage and the couple are called in for interrogation. The Shadow moves in the present. The main character, Luna Lee, has decided to flee from home. Is there something else besides emptiness somewhere? As luck would have it, she becomes a witness to the failing relationship between an unemployed actor and his wife. In contrast, Pastor Theophilus offers Luna Lee a contract with God. However, Theophilus ends up being useless as a savior as well. The common link between the three short stories is the leading character: Maara, Elina and Luna Lee are all played by the same actress.

Scandinavian Silence

Psychological drama with the elements of thriller tells about the reuniting of two characters. Through the winter landscape, they take a journey together that open up the reasons of a violent event that happened years ago. Unsolved past leads the characters to make a choice that will define their future.

Somnambulance

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.

Taarka

Arabella, the Pirate's Daughter

Arabella is a daughter of the world's most terrifying pirate captain. After saving a peculiar stranger from the sea, Arabella begins to doubt the life of pirates and her beloved father. But her safety and dreams of living a life as an ordinary girl are challenged when a rival pirate plans to kidnap her.

Christmas in the Jungle

Who said there’s no Christmas in the jungle? 10-year-old schoolgirl Paula moves into the tropics with her family and has to leave behind a familiar world. Although new life in the tropics is fun, Paula still misses Christmas and in an effort to avert the break-up of her family, Paula with her friend Akhim decide to go to the jungle to find Christmas shaman. However, neither knows how dazzlingly dangerous such a trip can be.

The Sleeping Beast

Ten-year-old Kristjan’s gang defies all dangers and rules to keep their secret playground in the ruins of an old industrial complex. One day, the complex guard has an accident. When the kids decide that it’s in the group’s best interest to keep the man hostage, Kristjan finds himself in a rough confrontation against his best friends.

Names in Marble

The year is 1918. A new country has emerged on the map of Europe – the Republic of Estonia. The film focuses on ordinary schoolboys, who didn’t think much of going into battle to fight for the independence of the nation. The battles they face are of immense scale and proportion. Will their reward be love, freedom or will they become mere memories as names engraved in marble?

Family Lies

The film is set in a town that has a professional symphony orchestra, managed by authoritarian and confident Paul Levald, who has conducted both the orchestra and his family affairs for years. Due to dramatic events, Paul’s son-in-law Egon Rei must unexpectedly assume his duties. In addition to the baton, power and responsibility as well as the tensions in the orchestra, Egon inherits his father-in-law’s secrets and obligations from his complicated past. New lies are born out of old ones and, at some point, Egon realises that the revelation of truth might cause a real chaos. “Family Lies” by Valentin Kuik and Manfred Vainokivi is a relationship drama about elephants in the bedroom and skeletons in the closet, about small and big deceptions, half-truths and set-ups that can be found in every family’s secret chronicles.

Ukuaru

Minna is a simple worker who won't marry a well-off boyfriend but poor man Aksel who has got nothing more than his accordion and love towards Minna. But living in poverty and hard work do not distress her. It is important for her to find her own home where children would run around and Aksel would play his accordion. In this remote forest house love works miracles but one thing it cannot do - to put the madness of the outer world at a safe distance.

A Stolen Meeting

Recently freed from prison in Russia, Valentina heads back to Estonia on a quest to find her son Jüri, who she had given up for adoption years ago. With the conviction that their reunion will be a happy ending, Valentina searches high and low until she finds her son in Tartu, adopted by a wealthy family. Reconciliation turned out to be more challenging than she had expected.

November

The story is set in a pagan Estonian village where werewolves, the plague, and spirits roam. The villagers’ main problem is how to survive the cold, dark winter. And, to that aim, nothing is taboo. People steal from each other, from their German manor lords, and from spirits, the devil, and Christ. To guard their souls, they’ll give them away to thieving creatures made of wood and metal called kratts, who help their masters by stealing more. They steal even if their barns are already overflowing. Stealing is an obsession that makes the villagers more and more like the soulless creatures they command, the kratts. The main character of the film is a young farm girl named Liina who is hopelessly and forlornly in love with a village boy named Hans. Her longing makes the girl become a werewolf and jump into an ice-cold pond. She’s ready to die in the name of love. The pragmatic farmers are faced with a question: is the life that they’ve won through so much toil worth anything, if it lacks a soul? Estonian pagan and European Christian mythologies come together in this film. Both mythologies look for a miracle; for an ancient force that gives one a soul. This film is about souls – longing for a soul, selling your soul, and living without a soul.

The Temptation of St. Tony

Eastern Europe, the new century. Wolflike laws and a wolflike appetite. There are still a few who look for the withered tree of knowledge of good and evil, planning to build quality office furniture out of it. “The Temptation of St. Tony” is a film about a man, who has reached middle age, and finds himself in exactly the kind of darkening forest that Dante describes. An unusual problem intrudes upon his moderately prosperous and quiet life – morality. Is it possible to be a “good person”? What does that mean anyway? And what’s in it for you? On his journey towards a clearer conscience but an increasingly complicated reality, Tony meets several typical specimens familiar from contemporary Estonian society and lives through exciting adventures, not without some diverting humor. And it starts to seem that slowly, and quite inevitably, the man loses his job, his family, and finally reality, itself. Compassion incurs capital loss.

The Last Ones

“The Last Ones” is a Nordic Western that takes place in the untamed Lapland tundra. The protagonist is young miner Rupi, who hopes to scrape together enough money through excavating the tundra to forever shake the suffocating dust of the mining village from his feet. But the work has come to a halt because Rupi’s reindeer herder father refuses to sell his land. What’s more, the manipulative mine owner nicknamed the Fisherman has his eye on Rupi’s friend’s wife, a woman who Rupi is also secretly in love with. Now that life in the mining village is becoming more dangerous by the day, Rupi must decide where and to whom he belongs. Is it the primal tundra of his forefathers or the cold terrain of personal interest?

The Riddle of Jaan Niemand

Somewhere in Estonia at the beginning of the 18th century. After ten years of war, plague and famine, the land is swept clean of people. The few remaining souls are scattered about, living in misery and lacking hope. An anxious silence hangs over the land. On one particularly starry night, two peasants find a stranger on the seashore. He’s disheveled and comatose. They take him to the local manor lord and slowly bring him back to consciousness. When he opens his eyes, he realizes that he can’t remember who he is or how he got there. He’s just as much a stranger to himself as to the people around him. By force of circumstance, he must stay at the manor and live as one of them. His preliminary state of lethargy slowly gives way to recovery. He must come to terms with the question: Who am I? He finds himself in a bizarre world, one full of meager uncertainty and growing disorder. There are sparse hints at his past… but what do you do when there is more than one correct answer to a question? What do you do when the answers aren’t good enough? Can we choose who we are? He embarks upon a journey of self-discovery with the most unlikely of landscapes as the backdrop. “The Riddle of Jaan Niemand” is a pseudo-historical riddle, a cinematographic journey. It isn’t a grandiose costume drama, but a kammerspiel mystery; a mystical trip to the peripheries of history and the subconscious. It’s the story of Jaan who first lost, then found himself. Again and again.

The Man Who Surprised Everyone

Egor, a forest ranger in Siberia, finds out he has terminal cancer. He accepts his prognosis and prepares for the inevitable. His wife (Natalia Kudryashova), who is expecting another child, begs him to visit a shaman, who relates a Russian folktale about a creature who fooled fate by disguising itself. Therefore, Egor decides to disguise himself and dress as a woman. Dressing as a woman in a Siberian village is an audacious move that is way beyond the comprehension of the locals, and worst of all, his son and wife, who are mortified. Does he want to fool death? Will being ostracized help him accept death, or will he prevail? The more people react to him, the more he persists.

Living images

Helmi, the daughter of a Baltic German baron, is imbued with life. She grows up in an old town house in Tallinn being neighbours with Julius, cinema technician, who has lifelong feelings for Helmi. Their lives and destinies meet in the old house throughout the 20 century - the house that keeps changing together with various times, both restless and happy. Historical love story combines the grotesque of early silent films with the melodrama of the golden age of cinema with elements of both the epic and the comic.

A friend of mine

Mati doesn't want to live anymore after the loss of his wife. She was everything to him and he thinks that life has no point without her. He has a job in a library and there is Ruth, who has secretly loved him for years. Life of her daughter Mari is a mess and she would need a help herself. Mati just wants to get away. Then out of nowhere shows up a restless Sass, a friend of all the troubled people. Sass starts to teach Mati how to live. Mati has now a friend, of whom it's almost impossible to get rid of. A Friend of Mine is a warm drama-comedy about the deep loneliness, which can only be cured by friendship.

Sandra Gets a Job

A psychological drama about a young Doctor of Physics who unexpectedly loses her job in an interest research group. Getting a new job, it seems simple at first glance, but after a few failures Sandra feels herself ever more clearly as unemployed. Every new attempt to find a job is increasingly humiliating way around the evaluation, adaptation and acting. In addition, she must hide her failure, at least for successful parents who also work in the world of science.

When You Least Expect It

Viivi, still on the young side, but lonely, discovers a strange man in her bed one beautiful morning. Panicking, the woman tries to reconstruct the events of the previous day in her head. It appears that it must have been one of the worst days in her life: an aching shoulder, being late for work, a diagnosis by her doctor, and, as a result of it all, an evening in the pub where she realises that you can be as neat and good as you like, but you still need luck… The man who Viivi finds between the sheets is Andres, nearing 50s, an affable bloke prone to mishaps, and a man who cannot say "no". One evening, he happens to dance with a strange lady at his local pub…

Ghost Mountaineer

An Estonian student hiking group get caught up in a series of scary events unfolding in wintry Siberia. The unpopular group leader Olle, becomes disappointed in his companions during the trip and disappears on the last day in the mountains. His rival, liberal-minded and adventurous Eero guides the descending hikers into a Buryate village on the mountain to seek help. A weird and insane chain of events is unleashed which seems to be orchestrated by the missing Olle. In a foreign land and among people they do not know, the hikers are faced with a task which they at first do not want to undertake and later are unable to tackle.

Demons

When Joko, Ants and Reeda, all in their own good reasons, first enter a casino, they can’t possibly be aware of the very existence of the demons inside them. Soon enough, they will know. But then it is already too late and their lives are suddenly caught in a fatal vortex.

Autumn Ball

How close can we get to others? Is it possible to live a life completely devoid of love? Can someone , who has experienced what a fragile state of affairs shared happiness is, trust another again? What can be said about life anyway? Some chosen moments from the life of six people living in a huge sprawling conurbation of tower blocks built during the soviet era. The gently stylised and indifferent world of “Autumn Ball” is steadily advancing towards winter and will not give any answers to these questions. What this world can demonstrate though is the possibility for laughter even there, where hope has long since become a sparse commodity. „Autumn Ball” is not exactly a comedy but it will not hurt you to go and see it anyway.

Empty

A young intellectual, Mati, engineers himself into a situation where he has to spend a weekend with his wife Helina and her lover Eduard. The trio goes to Eduard’s summer house, surrounded by the majestic scenery of big forests and an empty beach. Mati, either out of jealousy or pride, has decided to win back his wife and will do anything his introverted and inert mind can come up with.

That's IT!

It's December and Christmas time, but outside the summer sun is blazing. Something is wrong! The Mayan calendar predicts that the world will end on December 21, 2012. Every Estonian has to decide how they will spend their last days. Rait finally wants to confess his feelings to his lifelong love, starlet Lenna Kuurmaa. His friend Mihkel, hits his head, goes bonkers, and needs to save the world by sacrificing Lenna to the God of Sun. Brenda wants to escape her dictatorial mother but the orderlies of an insane asylum are chasing after her. Ervin wins the world's last lottery and is so upset by not having time left to spend the money so he wants to die from misery. Confusion reigns all over Estonia, but hope always dies last... And, fortunately, the end finally comes.

1944

World War II is decided by the military events in Estonia in 1944. The action branches from the battles of Sinimäge in July to the fall of Sõrve Säre to the Red Army at the end of November. The war is shown through the eyes of both parties, Estonians fighting in the German and Soviet armies. Choices must be made not only for soldiers, but also for their loved ones. The Second World War was also a war of fratricide for Estonians. The innocent feel guilty, the guilty feel nothing.

Swing, Axe and the Tree of Eternal Love

A regular day at the car shop comes to an end when two friends Kiik and Eerik discover their boss’s dead body. After Kiik finds his girlfriend cheating him with a local playboy, he suffers a mental breakdown and runs away. Kiik becomes fixated with cutting off all memories of his old relationship that includes chopping down a tree at the other side of the country where they gave a vow for eternal love. Kiik and Eerik hit the road.

Kratt

When children are left at Grandma's without smartphones they’re bored to tears. That is until Granny finds them loads to do. She also tells them about a magical creature named KRATT that’ll do whatever its master says. When they stumble upon an instruction on how to build one they don’t hesitate. All they have to do now is to buy a soul from the devil...

Self Made Cameraman

In 1912, the first Estonian filmmaker, Johannes Pääsuke, was commissioned to capture life and people in a far corner of Estonian countryside: Setomaa. He returned with more than 1300 photos, but only 7 minutes of film footage. What happened to the rest of it? Our comedy tries to propose a version. Johannes Pääsuke and his assistant Harri Volter, a Baltic German medical student, played by prominent Estonian comedians Ott Sepp and Märt Avandi, travel by train and on horse carriage from Tartu to Petseri and Värska and end up in most surreal adventures leading them to one conclusion: a man has to do what a man has to do. A year later, in 1913, Johannes Pääsuke filmed the very first Estonian feature film: Bear Hunt in the Pärnu County.

On the Water

Andres, the main character of the film, is a sensitive teenager raised by his strict grandparents in a small bland Soviet Estonian town. He is being bullied at school and his only friends are the drunkards, whores, and thieves living next door. Among them are a rough but sensible recidivist Valter and the simpleminded fisherman Kolla. And the only way to escape from his worries is to go fishing on the lake... The film talks about boyhood, friendship, first love, loss of loved ones, self-discovery, and coming of age. Despite the brutality and tragedy, it is a warm and humorous story of caring, humanity, and love.

Don Juan in Tallinn

One day, an elegant young swordsman arrives at the good old Tallinn where its inhabitants extravagantly boast with fashionable outfits and pop culture of 1960s and 1970s. Soon the rumors spread among female citizens that the swordsman is the famous lady-killer, Don Juan. The virtues of the local women are put to the test and the local young men must take up arms to prove themselves. Yet, Don Juan arriving at Tallinn is not the one whom people consider him to be.

Dangerous Curves

The fun and dramatic adventures of Marika, a student and motorcycle athlete, and her strikingly similar twin sister, ballerina Ellen, against the background of the competitions on the Pirita-Kose-Kloostrimets circuit. Marika has the opportunity to make her choice among athletes of different ethical levels, among her training partners. Raul's excessive self-confidence, which has become arrogant due to his previous achievements, receives a severe blow when, confident of his next victory, he turns out to be dragged by the nose by his twin sisters instead.

Lost

wo young people from the Soviet Estonia, Juhan and Linda, arrive at the coast of Sweden. They have left behind long ideological debates with their friends - and this has unexpectedly resulted in a murder. Juhan and Linda are unaware that they will meet here people who have been watching them for quite some time in order to take advantage of them. Even if the young couple is being helped from Estonia, they are still walking on thin ice.

Bumpy

Bumpy is a family musical which somewhat echoes the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. A brother and sister called Kusti and Iti get lost in a forest while picking strawberries and are captured by an evil forest hag, who uses the two kids as slave labor - Kusti is put to work around the farm, while Iti looks after the hag's mischievous son, whom she names Bumpy due to the horn-like bumps on his head. When a chance to escape arises, the two kids take Bumpy with them. But how will a wild forest rascal like Bumpy adjust to life with Iti and Kusti's family?

Requiem

When the frontline extends over Estonia in the summer of 1944, the pilots of a shot down Soviet airplane come to ask for help at a farm where organ builder Jaan lives with his kids.

The Firewater

When Eerik and his companions go on another night sea trip, they are aware of the danger of getting caught by the border guard. Spirit smuggling to Finland during the era of the Dry Law pays off, so the risk must be taken. After all, he needs a house to live in with Hilda, and a boat to work on the sea. And even if something goes wrong, an old man Nymann will help with his money. Yet, Aleks, the new chief at the borderguard office, has different views. Having fought at the Estonian War of Independence, he cannot see that money would buy off the authorities of the Republic of Estonia. While catching the spirit smugglers, Aleks will get involved in a ruthless, big game where friends can turn out your enemies and the other way round.

Awakening

It is the night of March 25, 1949. A full moon hangs over Estonia. Endless rows of cattle cars are waiting to transport thousands of Estonian families, asleep in their homes, to Siberia. The Stalinist regime is ready to treat people like animals.

For Crazies Only

A young man is taken to a small town hospital after a suicide attempt. Rita is a beautiful Russian nurse taking care of him. In order to restore the young man's vitality, self-confidence and virility, the nurse spends a night full of tenderness and love with him. Rita's colleagues start teasing her. Yet, there is someone who considers Rita to be the source for the evil and takes action. Rita accepts her fate but the avenger becomes more brutal every time.

Autumn

The young people that we know from the films "Spring" and "Summer" have grown up and become upstanding farmers and members of society in the post-war independent Estonia. Only tailor Kiir has not found a wife yet. Fortunately, two young women of appropriate age for marriage move to Paunvere and this will encourage Kiir's marriage plans. His marriage proposal and marriage will be adventurous, full of comedy, intrigues and happiness.

The Smacking Sea

When an islander comes with his decorated boat to propose to Katrina, she will need some time for figuring out what to do since she hardly knows the man. However, they will start their journey back to Matt Ruhve's home island even before the sunset. This is the island with its own laws where the strangers are not welcome and where even love tastes a bit like a sea salt.

Nipernaadi

While traveling around Estonia in summertime, Toomas Nipernaadi has no direction nor destination - he goes where the road takes him. People think their lives have been predestined and it should be taken as an inevitability until they meet Nipernaadi who likes to make up all kinds of stories and make people excited. He promises everyone happiness, love, and himself - but no one will ever get hold of him.

Come Back, Lumumba

Aurora, the new head of the culture centre in a small Estonian town, and her ward, nicknamed Lumumba, change the lives of Rein and his father who are crushed with grief. Together with their friend Elsa, the boys decide to introduce Rein’s father to Aurora in order to make them feel less lonely.

Ask the Dead About the Price of Death

After the attempted Communist coup d'état in December 1924, Communists continue their underground action. One of the leaders, Anton Sommer is an intelligent Communist and a man of principle who is arrested and sent to military court. He remains silent in interrogation as he considers it dishonorable to protect himself from accusations. Authorities try to make Sommer plead guilty and admit the revolutionaries' loss, but for Sommer honour is more important that life. His fellow fighter Ester pays back for him. However, when looking in the eye of Sommer's wife (as traitor) and the mother of the their children she realizes that nothing will make up the loss of a loved one.

Light at Koordi

When Paul Runge, a soldier of the Red Army, returns home to Koordi after the war, he sees that, despite the new regime, life in Koordi hasn’t changed. It’s still a abandoned, uncultured Estonian village, where rich landlords still oppress the population. Runge starts talking about founding a kolkhoze.

The Wild Swans

Princess Elise has eleven brothers bewitched by their evil stepmother - the boys have been turned into swans. To break the spell, Elise must weave a shirt of stinging nettles for every brother. During the work, she must remain completely silent, otherwise his brothers will die. Evil forces follow Elise's strange silence and odd weaving work while trying to destroy hope and love.

Letters from the Island of the Insane

Martin Puri is an elderly fisherman who is told to retire because of his old age by their chief fisherman August on a beautiful fishing day. Every now and then, Martin's fellow fishermen have saved him from hard work; however, every generation of the fishing people of the village has always known that they cannot be forced to be separated from the sea. At sea, one has to possess more than physical strength. When a group of people has to be saved from a boat in an autumn storm, Martin understands that one cannot act against the sea but together with it.

The Misadventures of the New Satan

When going to live on Earth as a human being, the Satan believes that through hard work and submissiveness it is possible to become blessed one day. His neigbour, a cunning guy Ants, laughs at the Satan's plans since these do not disturb Ants' life. He gives the Satan good advice with managing his farm named Põrgupõhja (Hell's Bottom), even if this help will cost a lot for the Satan and his family. Despite that, the Satan remains patient and keeps his faith to achieve his goal - until the day when Ants discovers that the Satan won't be of any use for him.

Under the Same Roof

Mari Põder has successfully led a collective farm in 1950s and fulfilled all tasks given from the authorities. Nonetheless, things in the collective farm become progressively worse. The Committee of the Communist Party sends its representative Peeter Arro who will learn that the manager Mari acts as a tyrant for the local people. She has to resign during the elections of the new manager. Being without authority has a damaging effect on her so she starts to regain her position with the help of her old tricks.

Days of June

Peeter Saarmann has grown up in the Raidma family with the knowledge that his father was a casualty of war and mother died during evacuation. He is a university student who prepares to get married. During renovation Peeter finds a pre-war newspaper with the article about an enterprise that seems to upset his stepfather. The night before his wedding day, Peeter runs into a drunk man who calls Peeter an illegitimate offspring. When Peeter hears the truth about his real parents from his stepfather, he has the feeling that this could become crucial for his future plans.

In the Backyard

The story of the distressed residents living in poor slums during the economic crisis of the first Estonian Republic in early 1930s. It is the life in the backyard both literally and symbolically.

Summer

Joosep Toots is always playing a practical joke on someone and Jorh Adniel Kiir keeps failing in everything he does. Both of them try to win Teele's heart; however, the moody young woman seems to be extremely determined. The beloved actors and actresses from "The Spring", the first part of the film trilogy, appear again in the roles while having grown up in the meantime. "Summer" depicts the life of the early 20th century in a humorous way while the lyrical undertone is provided by beautiful Estonian landscapes and the soundtrack familiar from "The Spring".

Werewolf

There are three children growing at Tammaru farm - one boy, Margus; and two orphan girls, Mari and Tiina. Tiina is lively and full of energy. Margus holds her very dear to him. Margus’s parents want him to marry Mari instead as she is more their kind. Hotblooded Tiina is completely different from them, and her mother was once executed for being a witch. Mari thinks that Tiina has bewitched Margus and cannot stand this, so she starts to publicly blame her stepsister for being a werewolf.

The Midday Ferry

A wide range of different people meet on a ferry: a hairdresser with her educated husband; her handicapped brother with his sister's neglected child; four female students of linguistics and four young specialists; a group of islanders returning home; and two stowaways - a young couple in love. The hungover steersman breaks the ferry regulation and lets two fuel vehicles on board. Chaos and hilarity ensue when the two stowaways accidentally start a fire on the ferry.

Postmark from Vienna

Martin Roll who once was a man of many words, wearing a dandy moustache has now become a suffering saggy man as described by his war friend Tõnis Upp. Martin is seriously disturbed by the state of things both at work in he box factory and at home but he does nothing to change that except dedicates himself to his collection of stamps. However, the bitter truth makes Martin bet on his biggest treasure - the Austrian WIPA issue stamp - with Tõnis. Tõnis will win if during one day he is able to tell only the truth.

What Happened To Andres Lapeteus?

After a long night with his old fellow fighters, Andres Lapeteus regains consciousness in the hospital. How has confusion, bewilderment and alienation developed between those men who once fought together side by side? Is this the inevitable result of the Stalinist regime, the influence of his parvenue wife, or the effect of his personal cowardliness and conformism? How did it really happen what happened to Andres Lapeteus?

The Milkman of the Manor

A baron gives a poor peasant a well-paid job of a milkman but for reward he has to accept his beloved girl going to the mansion from time to time. Does the wealth outweigh the honor and conscience?

Men from the Fisherman’s Village

The first Estonian post-war feature film tells the story about local fishermen who have to make a decisive choice. When their boat drifts away with the storm to the coast of Finland, Soviet borderguards starts immediately suspect them. However, what counts more to the fishermen is the fact that they discover - men from the same village won't always stick together.

Naughty Curves

Vaike, a student and a motorbike racer, arrives at the racetrack where the bikes are already racing at full speed. She gets involved in adventures while getting acquainted with Raivo, successful biker and womanizer, and Heino, another big league biker who offers Vaike his help in preparing for the competition. Vaike finds it hard to face all that alone. Her twin sister Maret will helped her with this complicated situation. Only that this time Maret's new husband Ants will join the game. He is convinced that he can make the difference between Maret and Vaike.

Uninvited Guests

Four Estonians who have escaped to Sweden during the war return to the Soviet Estonia in 1950s. The four diversionists are hired by the Western Secret Service. Difficulties arise when they cross the border with an injured companion - the rest of three have to decide what to do next. Soviet reality is not something they have expected and cooperation with the local people won't be any success. The agents must risk their conscience, their families and lives. National Security will launch its counter operation full of exciting turns.

Underwater Reefs

Tõnis Hoopkaup, head of the fishing collective farm, receives two significant presents for his wedding day - a new trawler and a cigarette case with the image of an anchor. Tõnis hopes to go to deep-sea fishing with his new ship and get ahead of the competing collective farms. The cigarette case reminds him of his pre-war dreams and disappointments. Tõnis is married to Riina but he is attracted by Lidia who looks like someone he was in love with long time ago and whose father was once known as "the king of the fishing village". Tõnis believes that he must acquire similar authoritativeness in order to accomplish everything that he has planned in the collective farm and to become respected and successful.

Smile at Last

Mari’s mom is dead and dad’s drinking. Life in an orphanage seems impossible to her, but there’s nowhere to go. She has to get used to living without homesickness, brutal among other teenagers and children’s. Fortunately, there is a Tauri who behaves well, but who for some reason is not much-loved. Robi, who breaks the rules, on the other hand, is everyone’s favourite, although Mari thinks she should hate him. A lesson in seeing other people around you and seeing them under the outer shell is almost unbearable for a girl, but her fate depends on it.

Dead Mountaineer's Hotel

Police Inspector Glebsky, arriving at a remote Alpine hotel to investigate a callout, encounters a seemingly serene resort atmosphere instead of a crime. Yet the initially pleasant evening in the company of the inn’s somewhat eccentric guests acquires increasingly bizarre qualities when an ominous anonymous letter is planted in Glebsky’s pocket. In the shadow of the night, a completely alien world unfolds.

Nest of Winds

Despite the fact that war is over there is no peace in Mahtjamäe farm. Jüri Piir, the farmer, is pressurized either by the forest brothers or the village deputy following the orders of Soviet authorities. Foreign views and demands force Jüri to make difficult decisions.

Karoliine’s Silver Yarn

Karoliine is a spoiled and selfish princess who will meet swamp ogres and sleep fairies, a mermaid and a werewolf on her journey. A bunch of robbers will take her to their cave. Despite of having a smart and helpful guide Kaspar with her, Karoliine has to get rid of her selfishness and inconsideration towards others. She is gradually becoming brave and good-hearted that will eventually lead her to the presence of mind and real love.

The Master of Kõrboja

Anna, the daughter of an elderly owner of Kõrboja farm, is told by her father that if she won't move into their home farm then it will be sold to strangers. But the farm also needs a master, and Anna has been living in town for years. She comes back home and meets again Villu, her friend from childhood. Villu is still as temperamental as he used to be, and Anna has always been a stubborn one. Now they have grown up. The more fellow villagers find the couple a strange one, the more they are attracted to each other.

The Last Relic

Livonia, 16th century. A young knight, Hans von Risbieter, inherits from his father a reliquary with the remains of St. Bridget, which a monastery wants to take possession of. Risbieter agrees to surrender the relic if he marries Agnes von Mönnikhusen, the abbess's angelic niece. However, Agnes's heart beats for Gabriel, a Robin Hood-like free man, who bravely stands up for freedom and justice. In the shadow of romantic adventures, the exploding anger of the Estonian freedom struggle is interwoven between the lines. In the form and shadow of historical scenery, the legendary adventure film has been able to speak to many generations.

The Spring

Paunvere parish school students Arno and Teele, Toots and Kiir, Tõnisson and Imelik experience feelings during one school winter, the traces of which they carry throughout their future lives - from true friendship and first love to self-discovery and clarifying life goals.

Colourful Dreams

Little Kati spends her summer at her grandma's. Her playmates are the village boys and the whole countryside - animals, flowers, the wind and stones. Kati conjures up the sun and floats above the fields of flowers and the whole universe. There is no borderline between reality and the magic world. Is it possible to play the same game also at her home in the city?

Men in Soldier’s Overcoats

After being mobilized to the Red Army and their hard experience in the battalions, Estonian soldiers are formed into the Estonian Rifle Corps. Many of them, including Enn Kalm, lack motivation to fight. On their long way back to homeland and during the battles at Velikiye Luki, the Estonian men will recover their strength and realize the idea of fighting. On the banks of Emajõgi River, Enn and his fellow soldiers have to face their compatriots who wear the enemy's uniform. What about the feelings and behaviour of the men who had to put on the soldier's overcoats due to the times of war? The war film depicts the real side of the war without pathos and the way hard-working Estonian soldiers relate themselves to the war, yearning for coming back home.

Madness

Right before the end of the World War II, a special forces squad enters the mental hospital, located in a good-looking old manor house, in order to take away the patients. Yet, Gestapo has been informed that there is a spy hiding among the insane. Officer Windisch has to find the malingerer among the few hundred mentally ill patients and a chase begins.

The Secret Lamb

A warm movie about two boys, who discover a secret of a painting that was considered to be lost. The adventures begin, when a boss of a bunch of criminals finds out about the painting.

Christmas in Vigala

The Christmas of 1905 in Vigala is not the peaceful holiday. The manor house has been pillaged during the peasant's revolt; the air is full of smoke of fire and there is the premonition of inevitable punishment. Bernhard Laipmann is a tenant farmer whose wife is asking him to leave home since her husband keeps drawing the attention of the authorities. Having doubts about leaving, Laipmann is inspired by endeavouring towards freedom and equality and alarmed by the violence of the revolution. He has not taken part in pillaging the manor house, so he should be found guilty. Nevertheless, Laipmann is captured after being falsely accused and he is ready for the worst. One more time he has to make a choice and now he is not having any doubts.