Discoveries from Estonia World Cinema

Collecting spellings, poems, questions and songs this animated poem portraits rejection, rupture, reflection and love.

A brief encounter with a Golden snake leads to unexpected consequences.

It is the monodrama of a white-white paper.

Lost film. The five-episode silent film was shot in Tartu and it was ambitiously called as „the first Estonian art drama“ by its producers. Nothing is known about the contents of the film since it is not preserved. It may have imitated the popular Russian drama series of „Gold Series“.

Kihnu is a small island in the Gulf of Riga. Soosaar looks at the islanders from the point of view of an explorer, just like his filmmaking hero Robert Flaherty once did. Their traditional lifestyle unfolds in front of his camera: customary songs and rituals, and heartfelt images of people’s daily lives.

Underwater Flights is comprised of ten film short stories that depict events occurring between 1820 and 1940. This was a time when clever men invented flying machines, submarines started traveling underwater, warships were built in Tallinn, bombs were thrown from zeppelins and planes started to fly across oceans. These stories about wild times and creative people are told by film newsreels, private letters, intelligence reports and bedtime stories...

A series of short winter scenes.

After World War II, Estonian (Latvian and Lithuanian) soldiers, airmen and sailors who had fought (been conscripted) on the German side ended in POW camps on the US side. They were the lucky ones. The others went to Siberia. This story is about those soldiers who were sitting in their POW camps when all of a sudden they were conscripted yet one more time, this time into a civil variant of the US Army.

A documentary short by Theodor Luts.

Mimema is a meditation on states of liminality, of being in stasis, drifting in-between above and below, night and day, inside and out. Mimema started out as a sound composition and grew into a series of images that reflected my desire to invert the world around me by capturing the 'real' and making it 'imaginary', Much like a mirror that reflects the shifting states of human cognition we encounter moment to moment. Mimema is the blur between what we sense and what we construct as understanding, appearing as much a body as a fluid or boundary as a state of dissolution.

A short film about a strange Estonian family who kidnap two youngsters.

A married couple living in Karlova, Tartu, organize a reception for the Republic of Estonia at their home every year on February 24. A humorous insight into the party that takes place in parallel with the glamorous presidential ball, which vividly illustrates what happens in front of thousands of TVs throughout Estonia on this day.

The joint burial of the victims of the explosion at the Männik ammunition depot of the Estonian Defence Forces at the Estonian Defence Forces cemetery in Tallinn on June 18, 1936. 49 coffins (9 of the deceased were buried elsewhere by their families) in two rows, mourners at the coffins.

Seal hunters J. Prants, E. Aaslepp, V. Aaslepp and A. Aaslepp travel from Aksi Island to the Gulf of Finland on a fishing trip. Travel between ice floes, pulling the boat on the ice. Catching seal pups. Hunting seals on the ice. Dinner and rest on the boat.

View of the Raadi Manor House. Museum staff at work. Overview of the ethnography department's exposition.

A film about the Estonian forest industry, commissioned by the Estonian Forestry Association.

The heroes of the film are the people of Kiev, who have not lost their zest for life: they cook shashlik in their courtyards by candlelight and dance to the sound of generators. We see shelters in maternity wards and pregnant women ready to give birth as sirens wail. A story of incredible resilience and light that shines brightest in the darkest times, uniting different cultures in a common cause.

Liina, a perfectionist clinging to control, hires an actor to play her father for a carefully staged family dinner meant to welcome her estranged daughter, Mari.

A look at the small but lively reggae scene in the Baltics.

Two people play a game that affects the world of smaller players.

Horror film using the possibilities of Valga Hotel "Säde" and one apartment. Journalist Jean-Pierre Bertrandt arrives to investigate mysterious deaths in a hotel room, but it doesn't do him any good. The film is preceded by cinema scenes "Bad Boy in Paris" and "At the Airport".

Nazeeya, a 24-year-old immigrant girl from the Caucasus, has one day to find a man to marry in Estonia, before her devout Muslim grandfather, Jassim, marries her away to a friend in the village they're from.

An ethnographic documentary.

A film about the lives, beliefs, and perspectives of the fishermen from Kaunispe, a small village on the western coast of Sõrve.

This film visualizes the musical motifs of renowned Estonian composer Eduard Tubin’s "First Symphony". Each character in the film represents a musical motif from the symphony.

A floating bed and a woman carefully - and gently - holding a mouse close to her body. Gazing into the void, she is carried by a train of (sub)consciousness. Chimes and (human and animal) voices punctuate this windy, grassy journey. Like in a possible (sleep) paralysis, the terrain of the real and otherworldly are in permanent tension. She fails to close her eyes.

A documentary that follows possible steps and rules of the hookup culture game in a club in Tallinn. A sociological portrait that documents different mindsets and attitudes from men and women on the dance floor and in (night)life, accompanied by hit clubbing tracks of the time.

A soldier is released from the Soviet army and he travels home. 25 years later he sets out again to be relieved from the pressure that has been distressing him for all these years. He undertakes a ritual journey to a far-away village graveyard to free himself from the torturous memory and the ambiguous feeling of guilt for a tragic accident in the army.

Wen Yifan is a Beijing-born director and cinematographer whose films explore themes of identity, memory, and personal transformation.

On a windy winter's evening, a small farmhouse stands in the middle of a field, where a small child is watching cartoons on the TV in his armchair. Behind him, his grandmother is in the kitchen doing her chores. The child's cartoons are interrupted by a nationwide announcement warning the nation of something big about to happen. Startled, the child asks his grandmother what is happening to the TV, but by then it is too late.

Blessed event of expanding family life turns into a nightmare of fighting for their lives and dreams, that leads them to the edge of the sea and changes their lives forever.

Pale Alison is a youth band from Narva. When the communist regime collapsed, these young people were left in families in Narva, where the euphoria of a great home republic disappeared and the confusion between the new and old world order created daily tensions. How to live if your father is a Putinist, but your mother loves Europe and a free Estonia?

A man tries various ways to achieve flight, with sometimes unexpected results.

Merike is the trainer and soul of Tobra stables. She was born with one hand, but this is only part of the external description, insignificant to her. As a coach, Merike's first goal is to teach children humanity and caring.

When 18-year-old Hans arrives from military service to spend a weekend at his countryside home, he notices his dad’s strange escapism and unfair treatment of his younger brother. Before his weekend permit runs out, Hans must heal dad’s painbody and deal with the confrontation.

An Estonian cosmonaut comes from the future to save the world from global warming. But can it be real, or is it just a scam?

A lively little girl runs across the field until she notices a dead bird lying on the ground. The soul leaves the bird’s body and starts moving towards the forest which the curious girl decides to follow. Not knowing what lies ahead, the child falls into the dark spirit world and must find her way back home.

Into a starry sky full of coloured spots! The propellers have been revved up. Accompanied by the drone and roar of the engine, the aircraft takes off. Its mission, to be followed live: compare images, sort out, superimpose, create a visual reality of dots and pixels. A park is requested, but with how many trees? A racy car is dreamt of, but which design is sleek enough? The variables dictated by the pilot determine what appears on the monitor – sculptures of possibilities or morphed set pieces. The tank is filled with millions of continuously flowing images for an infinite number of combinations. But who controls the projected flight path?

A woman wakes up at home. She looks at her garden, mindful of the concealed rhythms of plants and animals. A moose visits her. She follows it and there begins a strange journey where the world and her flow together, until they become one. Director Unt creates a beautiful story of rebirth and emancipation. To achieve this, she uses several animation techniques for each step she makes, each metamorphosis she undergoes, from cut-outs to moving sand, from traditional 2D to point-of-view shots. The viewer can appreciate the textures, the tactile quality of the film, and, at the same time, how the main character gets freer in the frame. There’s indeed an expert lightness of touch at work here.

An exploration of Kesk Street in SIllamae and the youngsters which inhabit it.

Vahur Kersna's large-scale movie of the life, work and fate of Alo Mattiisen, who became the figurehead of the singing revolution.

Absurdist experimental documentary, about the tensions around the Bronze Soldier that were escalating in both Estoniam and Russian media.

A music video with chaotic body horror energy for the single A Strange Feeling of Existential Angst, from the latest album by Sunflowers.

Philosopher Jan Jõemets embodies all Estonian humanitarians of 1990s. While flying too high and being too free he burned his fingers and now the viewers can decide themselves whether Jan has enouth will and power to rise from the ashes. Only Jan's friend Margus Ott has survived in today's desinfected and chlorinated pool of education among the former philosophy students of the School of Humanities. The documentary points out the commercialization of today's higher education and suffocation of free thinking. The protagonists' journey reveals how educational system attempts to cast creative thinkers into similar moulds.

Young village boy, Kevin, spends most of his time drinking with friends, smoking or driving around with hoes. One day, however, he meets Arabella, a beautiful city girl who has come to the countryside in search of silence and peace. But silence and peace is the last thing she'll find there!

The author of the film, Indrek Spungin, has reached the harbour of love and peace, he is married and the father of several children. Everything seems beautiful, but one day his wife tells him that if nothing changes, then their love and marriage will soon come to an end. Indrek is confused. He takes his friend Taavi and a camera and goes to find out what love really is. He questions representatives from a variety of social groups on topics such as love and marriage.

The self-help and counseling association for the elderly has been operating in Kadriorg for almost 30 years and is fondly called the "Academy of Elegant Aging". The day center gives elderly people the opportunity to realize themselves and communicate with others. Simple tasks help seniors feel needed.The house is run by 70-year-old Heino, who is one of the few men among the lively ladies.

The story of the modern Cinderella, who is looking for her betrothed, first in prison, and then in Turkey.

A documentary story about collector Misha's search for love and happiness. He is 32 years old, he lives alone in Narva and with his mother in Tallinn. Misha is a born comedian. In his image there are features of Papanov and Leonov. Outwardly, a little full, clumsy, but touching and educated person. Misha's dream is to buy a Volga car and find a wife, in search of which the guy goes on dates with different ladies. Friend Yuri gives him good advice that every bachelor can take note of. Can the dream come true if the ladies come across with three children, and the Volga 3102 car is no longer being produced.

In modern Estonia, a modern factory employs modern workers, a Russian, a Ukrainian and a Chinese. They try to understand each other and the society in which they find themselves.

Filmmaker Peep Puks has directed 61 documentaries and created almost 40 programmes for television. In this film, he looks back on a lost time, the films that have accompanied him, and the colleagues without whom this all wouldn’t have happened. It’s also the story of the first post-war generation of Estonia and the birth of the Estonian documentary.

A short but educational documentary about a young sculptor who decides to build a cute mini-pig from his troublesome domestic cat. What can modern science and technology do? What kind of tools are needed for a cat-to-pig builder at home? Where are the limits of ethics? What about aesthetics?

A man with a bird in his pocket gets on a train and sits down with a stranger. An argument ensues between them, which ends in an unexpected surprise for both.

In the 1980s, five young students from the University of Tartu get an opportunity to travel to Northern Finland. Sadly, the group experiences an accident after which one of the members dies. The survivors try to keep themselves clear-headed, but it is physically and mentally challenging. The relationships in the group keep getting more aggressive and soon enough, no one can be trusted anymore.

The main character searches for herself through chance encounters with diverse personalities. Through various challenges, she learns to better understand both herself and the world around her. Inspired by the book “Idiots around me”.

In the video Orbs, two people are playing with an armillary sphere, one of the oldest instruments of astronomy in the world invented separately by the ancient Greeks and the Chinese. It represents the objects in the sky, with the stars orbiting around the sun in the centre, while also setting measures for time. In European science, the geocentric view revolving around the stationary planet Earth was replaced with a solar one, the Copernican heliocentric model, in the 16th century. Earth appears here as part of a larger cosmic order of things, its fate connected to that of the other bodies in ceaseless motion. The detached eye of the rational mind is replaced in the video by two embodied subjects. Hesitant and exploratory, the hands appear in search of a shared rhythm rather than assuming the place of a universal man making the world go around.