5 Estonian Documentaries
These 5 movies give some sense of the topical and stylistic approaches of Estonian documentary-making heritage.
Woman From Kihnu (1973)
On the small island of Kihnu off the western coast of Estonia people have their own colorful culture and traditions. Mark Soosaar investigates trough the eye of a camera how the generations turn and pass but the people and the culture still stay the same.
The Woman from Kihnu is notable for the sense that although the traditional use of storyline is missing from the film it still manages to carry a distinctive mood from start to finish.
The film creates a strong emotional response and in many ways the strongest point of the film is the visual language that conveys all these cultural ideas. Because this is such a colorful film the variety of hues from the red of the Kihnu woman’s dress to the intense blue of the sea the colors seems to best express much of what Kihnu really is.
Original Title: "Kihnu Naine". Released: 1973, Estonia. Length: 48 min. Director: Mark Soosaar. Reviewed: December 1, 2007.
Jaanipäev (1978)
Estonians, a nation of peasants and countrymen has moved into the cities. Sööt follows how the old traditions (such as making bonfires on the Midsummer Eve) struggle to survive in the urban desert between the Soviet concrete buildings.
The old ways of the people have been destroyed, their countryside culture is left dead in the past and the people are put inside grey boxes called houses. The sound and visuals of the city are strange and dismaying. People are so busy and the city is noisy and dirty. Constructions, people running. Police siren goes by. Very fast and disorientating for the peasants and countrymen.
All of this is a great example of visual storytelling. There is no dialogue, and there is very little emphasis on anything but the visual image.
The kids are playing in the construction yards with rockets and planes, nothing natural in sight. There is the Tivoli to entertain oneself and there is the popular music – none of resembles what people were use to in the countryside so they stay inside their house. But people do come out of their big Lasnamäe houses to go to the Jaanitule bonfire.
Old songs with lyrics the like of “Laske vanad tantsud valla tõstke piigad taeva alla” bring back memories for some and for others this is just a memory from the long gone past. Still, some of the ideas of agrarian romanticism are deeply rooted.
But after the Jaanipäev everything is the same once again – people living in big houses everyone in his own little cubicle, every windows just the same.
Original Title: "Jaanipäev". Released: 1978, Estonia. Length: 19 min. Director: Andres Sööt. Reviewed: December 6, 2007.
Arnold (2002)
Director Urmas E. Liiv follows the controversial life and struggles of the aspiring Estonian Pop-Singer with alleged disabilities Arnold Oksmaa.
Released: 2002, Estonia, Length: 52 min, Director: Urmas E. Liiv. Reviewed: January 16, 2008.
Jonathan From Australia (2007)
Estonians have always been waiting for the white ship but it never came. Sulev Keedus in holding a mirror up to the society and one sees that there are people who are desperate.
Original Title: Joonatan Austraaliast. Released: 2007, (Estonia). Length: 90 min. Director: Sulev Keedus. Reviewed: September 29, 2007.
To Shura (1990)
Aleksandra, an elderly woman living in Eastern Estonia tells her life story of forty years of work on top of a coal mine.
Release: 1990, Estonia. Length: 18 min. Directors: Renita and Hannes Lintrop. Reviewed: September 19, 2007.
Written in 2007 at Tallinn Baltic Film & Media School Documentary class with Renita Lintrop.