Tag: Tallinn

Tallinn celebrates 25 years of showcasing the finest world cinema!

Posted on by victorfraga

One of the most diverse, exciting and accessible film festivals in the world celebrates its 25th birthday this year. The PÖFF Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival takes places between November 12th and 28th in the Estonian capital and also in Tartu, the country’s second largest city.

The breadth and the depth of the event are truly astonishing, and particularly remarkable for a nation of just 1.3 million inhabitants. Northern Europe’s only A-list Fiapf-accredited film festival includes a Official Selection Competition, a First Feature Competition, PÖFF Shorts (which is also competitive) a Baltic Film Competition, a Youth and Children’s Festival, KinoFF (a side event for Russian-speaking audiences), Rebels With a Cause (a strand devoted to experimental and audacious filmmakers), a glitzy opening and closing ceremony in two of the city’s charming concert halls, and much more. The Industry @ Tallinn & Baltic Event caters for industry professionals, with a focus on sustainability this year.

There are more reasons than one to celebrate in the event’s 25 anniversary. Despite the second wave of the pandemic. PÖFF took place in its physical format and in its entirety in 2020, with the according health and safety measures in place. This was nothing short of a miracle. Expect a much bigger, brighter and louder event this year, as the world resumes some semblance of normality. What’s great about Tallinn is that despite the vast number of films and strands, networking and access to talent are extremely straightforward. You can meet both nascent and established directors after the screenings, in the lobby of the Nordic Hotel or at the cosy Naganaga Bar and Restaurant (but pssst; this one is a well-kept secret you don’t want to share with everyone). Did I mention prices too are accessible, and people very kind and helpful?

DMovies has attended the event yearly for four years, and we couldn’t be happier to return in 2021, with two journalists (myself and Redmond Bacon) in loco plus a kind helping hand from Paul Risker, remotely from Birmingham!

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A worldly selection

The 22 films in the Official Selection (19 movies in competition and three special screenings) are the biggest testament of the Festival’s distinction, and irrefutable evidence that Tallinn is a city of world cinema. Films come from virtually every corner of the world, from countries as diverse as Chile, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Germany, the Philippines and Hungary (the Central European nation shares a remote ethnic and linguistic connection with Estonia, and it’s this year’s focus country).

Highlights include The King of All the World, the latest movie from legendary 89-year-old Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura, the nightmarish Russian Captain Volkonogov Escaped, the shockingly violent Belgian Animals, and the politically explosive Chilean A Place Called Dignity. Sadly there are no British movies in the Official selection this year, however there are two UK entries in the First Feature Competition strand.

Festival Director Tiina Lokk explains: It’s vitally important, in these challenging times for the culture business, to make sure film fans continue to visit cinemas and have that essential experience. The best way to do that is surely to show them the very best, most provocative and most inspiring films world cinema has to offer. It’s an honour to have these films join us and a gift to Estonian film fans”

Just click here in order to find out more about PÖFF Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, the various film strands, the countless movies and the abundant action.

Below is the list of all 22 films in the Official Selection:

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World premieres:

Herd Immunity (Kazakhstan, Adilkhan Yerzhanov);

Songs for a Fox (Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia, Kristijonas Vildžiūnas);

Perpetuity (Hungary, György Pálfi);

A Place Called Dignity (Chile/Argentina/Germany, Matias Rojas Valencia);

Killing the Eunuch Khan (Iran, Abed Abest; second pictured from the top);

Big Night (Philippines, Jun Robles Lana); and

The Wait (Finland, Aku Louhimies).

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International premieres:

The Wedding Day (Poland, Wojtek Smarzowski; pictured at the top of this article);

No Looking Back (Russia, Kirill Sokolov);

Dear Thomas (Germany, Andreas Kleinert);

What Went Wrong? (Spain, Liliana Torres);

The List of Those Who Love Me (Turkey, Emre Erdoğdu);

The Gentiles (Santi Amoreo; third picture on this article);

Make the Devil Laugh (Japan, Ryuichi Mino);

A Vanishing Fog (Colombia/Czech Republic/Norway, Augusto Sandino); and

Mukagali (Kazakhstan, Bolat Kalymbetov).

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European premieres:

No. 10 (Netherlands/Belgium, Alex van Warmerdam);

Yanagawa (China, Zhang Lu); and

Animals (Belgium/France, DNabil Ben Yadir).

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Official Competition – Out of Competition:

Compartment No 6 (Finland/Germany/Estonia/Russia, Juho Kuosmanen);

The King of All The World (Spain/Mexico, Carlos Saura); and

Captain Volkonogov Escaped (Russia/Estonia, Aleksey Chupov & Natasha Merkulova).

First-time directors: the nascent talent set to shine next month in Tallinn!

Posted on by Redmond Bacon

A much-needed cultural reprieve during the year’s darkest and bleakest month, The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival returns for its 25th edition between the 12th and 28th. I am very excited to revisit the small and cosy city to check out the First Feature Competition once more as it represents one of the best ways to discover new talent across the Baltics, Europe and the world.

Last year was particularly inspired, spanning from the bittersweet Chinese epic Great Happiness (Wang Yiao) to the claustrophobic, micro-budget horror hybrid Model Olimpia (Frédéric Hambalek). As everyone is housed in the same hotel, last year gave me a great chance to get up-and-close with the directors, hearing directly from them about their influences and visions for cinema, making it one of the most simulating and exciting film festivals around.

This year promises to be a feast of new and exciting talent, with ten world premieres. Sorely lacking in British talent last year — apart from the excellent, still slept-on, Kindred (Joe Marcantonio) — the Competition boasts both “heist musical” The Score (Malachi Smyth) and “post-Brexit satire” Alice, Through the Looking (Adam Donen). Otherwise, we see some Baltic talent in the form of Lithuania’s Feature Film About Life (Dovile Šartytė; pictured below) and Latvia’s Troubled Minds (Raitis Ābele, Lauris Ābele). While the majority of features come from Europe, I’m looking forward to see some world-offerings in the form of Moroccan, Colombian, Japanese, Chilean, Mexican and Kenyan films, showing that great talent certainly can come from anywhere.

A Feature Film About Life

With great hospitality and perhaps a few helpings of local liquor Vana Tallinn, I can’t wait to return and dive into what this festival has to offer. Check our website during 17th and 26th November for up-to-date dispatches from the Black Nights.

Here’s the full list of the films in the First Feature Competition:

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World premieres:

The Score (UK, Malachi Smyth);

The Cloud & The Man / Manikbabur Megh (India, Abhinandan Banerjee);

Alice, Through the Looking (UK, Adam Donen);

Who is Sleeping in Silver Grey (China, Liao Zihao);

Feature Film About Life (Lithuania, Dovilė Šarutytė);

Troubled Minds (Latvia/Poland, Directors: Raitis Ābele, Lauris Ābele);

The Red Tree (Colombia/Panama/France, Joan Gómez Endara);

Other Cannibals (Germany, Italy, Francesco Sossai);

Life Suits Me Well (Morocco, Al Hadi Ulad-Mohand); and

Tenzin (Canada, Michael LeBlanc and Joshua Reichmann).

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International premieres

Her Way (France, Cécile Ducrocq);

Immersion (Chile/Mexico, Nicolás Postiglione);

Precious Ivie (Germany, Sarah Blaßkiewitz);

Dark Heart of the Forest (Belgium/France, Serge Mirzabekiantz);

Dozen of Norths (Japan, Koji Yamamura);

The Radio Amateur (Spain, Iker Elorrieta);

;Zuhal (Turkey, Nazli Elif Durlu);

Occupation (Czech Republic, Michal Nohejl; pictured at the top of this article); and

Other People (Poland/France, Aleksandra Terpińska).

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European premiere

Blind Love (Kenya/Switzerland, Damien Hauser).

The light shines on first-time directors!

Posted on by Redmond Bacon

Tallinn was already meant to save cinema this year. The setting of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet (2020), Estonian locations were thrust into the limelight at a scale perhaps not seen since Tarkovsky made Stalker (1979) all those years ago. Talking to people here, it seems that every film professional in Estonia was involved in Nolan’s film. I also learned here that the city is already offering Tenet tours, showing off those key locations that gave the film its autumnal aesthetic. Where else, I was told, could you shut off a motorway for three weeks?

But while Tenet didn’t manage to get as many bums in seats as self-proclaimed-saviour-of-cinema Nolan personally hoped, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival keeps the flame of cinema alive when so many theatres across the world remain closed. Masks on, social distancing encouraged, hands sanitised, it was a pure thrill to be able to return to the film festival circuit after so many barren months.

This was especially true of the First Feature Competition, which proved the power of theatrical projection to provide the best possible environment for debut filmmakers. The strong curation, with plenty more hits than misses, and no outright bad films, provided a variety of fascinating and marked aesthetic visions and plenty of new directors to watch as they progress and hopefully become big names in their respective home countries.

The physical presence of Tallinn’s screenings, as well as the opportunity to socialise with the filmmakers and actors in person, reminds one of the importance of connecting cinema to their environments. Films cannot be extricated from their location or situation, the context of where you see the film providing crucial insight into its perspective that a streaming service or online release simply cannot provide.

Great happiness

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Aesthetics meets commentary

In total, there were 21 films in the First Feature Competition (including three non-competitive entries). We reviewed every single one of them exclusively for you. You can find all of these reviews in our film archive.

A film like the sold-out Goodbye Soviet Union (Lauri Handla), which told the story of an Ingrain Finnish boy’s last years in Estonia during the 80s before the fall of the Berlin Wall, resonated far more after learning a little about Estonia and their complex relationship with Russians and their Soviet legacy.

Inspired by the directors own youth, the film provided a fresh take on the indie teen drama. On the other side of the spectrum, 25 Years of Innocence. The Case of Tomek Komenda (Jan Holoubek) played like a Polish version of The Shawshank Redemption, a ripped from the headlines tale of injustice and the need for true accountability. Realism and international significance also permeated the melancholic tone of Should the Wind Drop ( Nora Martirosyan) set in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh just before it descended into conflict.

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Cinema speaks to national traditions

This is an Armenian film about a country that exists in reality, but not in the eyes of the wider international community, providing necessary context for the region. Other first features were also in conversation with national issues. The epic sociological tone of Great Happiness (Wang Yiao) brought to mind Jia Zhang-ke in its exploration of the new capitalist Chinese generation; Poppy Field (Eugen Jebeleanu) was made in a classic minimalist Romanian New Wave style while exploring homophobia in Bucharest society; and Sententia (Dmitry Rudakov) bore the mark of the Moscow Institute of Cinematography style while investigating the dark world of Soviet censorship.

Other films were more aesthetically restless, such as standout Fortuna — The Girl and the Giants (Nicolangelo Gelormini) ,which used a dual narrative to excellent, haunting effect, and The Penultimate (Jonas Kærup Hjort),which bucked conventional Danish, dogme-realism in favour of parable and kafkaesque absurdity. While there is inevitably some showboating and underdeveloped ideas throughout a lot of these films — even in the very good ones — they show first-time directors with boatloads of flair and acres of potential.

Fortuna — The Girl and the Giants

This sense of flair came through strongest in the genre films. Hopefully out-of-competition entry Kindred (Joe Marcantonio) is a hopeful breakout horror hit in the UK, tackling the gaslighting of black women while showing a great eye for old-school craftsmanship. Likewise The Flood (Victoria Wharfe McIntyre),a rape revenge thriller set in tropical Australia, was filled with greatly rendered suspense scenes. Both films provided necessary genre relief against austere and taxing arthouse.

The varied work, spanning social naturalism, pure fantasy and even magical realism, was neatly handled by the curators, providing personal introductions that showed their passion for cinema and their joy at presenting films in their best possible environment.

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The miracle of Tallinn

The fact that I am writing this piece at all feels like a minor miracle. In addition to seeing live music and drinking in bars, watching films — a commonplace act in a normal year — feels like living on an alien planet. Yet the diverse and international selection of films showed us the connections that run throughout the globe, providing a rosy picture (uncharacteristic for 2020) of cinema’s future.

The Award Ceremony will take place on Friday, November 27th.

The three images on this article are stills from the first-feature entries: Frédéric Hambalek’s Model Olimpia (top), Great Happiness (middle) and Fortuna – the Girls and the Giants (bottom).

Two journalists from DMovies, Redmond Bacon and Victor Fraga, attended the 24th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival for the entire duration of the event. A full wrap-up including reviews of all 21 First Feature Competition and 26 Official Competition movies will be published next Monday.

Enfant Terrible

Posted on by Redmond Bacon

Before his death at the age of 37, Fassbinder directed more than 40 films, as well as producing several plays and TV shows. His cocaine and sex-fuelled career made him the true provocateur of German Cinema, helping to give birth to a New Wave of cinema while challenging cinematic conventions and German’s collective national shame. But you don’t get to make that many films in such a short space of time without being a unique type of character: Fassbinder worked because he couldn’t think of doing anything else, making his entire life a type of film.

Director Oskar Roehler shoots his biopic Enfant Terrible in a Brechtian style, with deliberately artificial lighting, mannered acting and painted-on props and sets. This is a particularly clever method for a biopic of a filmmaker, as it shows little difference between the world around Fassbinder and the films he is trying to shoot, giving a great demonstration of how life and art can so easily blend into one another.

Oliver Masucci plays the late German director. The actor is 51 years old, three decades older than the German filmmaker in the 1960s. There is no de-aging in sight. Masucci embodies the director’s intense physicality, strength and outspoken nature. In an early scene in Enfant Terrible, he sprays the audience with a hose, claiming that it’s the only way to make them experience the real world. Almost immediately he lights up the Munich theatre scene, bringing in an entourage who will follow him through initial bemusement at his Berlin Film Festival debut through to his eventual international success with masterpieces such as Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) and The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978).

Despite all the stylistic window-dressing, this is a very conventional biopic in terms of narrative, covering Fassbinder’s career from his first film, Love is Colder Than Death in 1969, to his cocaine and barbiturate-filled death in 1982. This is a long and piteous look at his failed relationships, mostly with foreign men, touching on themes of homophobia and racist attitudes, as well his controversial, physically abusive behaviour on set, which would never hold up today. Masucci provides a truly boisterous performance, showing us the complexity of a man who hits people on set but cries after sex, is cruel and dismissive of his lovers one moment, and desperately pleading for them in another.

For those new to Fassbinder’s work and unacquainted with this particularly artificial strain of German theatre-inspired filmmaking, they may find themselves a little lost. But for Fassbinder fans this film is a fascinating look into arguably Germany’s greatest ever director, a wunderkind so inspired he makes Xavier Dolan look like Ron Howard. For the average person, maintaining such a prolific career while rarely sacrificing quality is simply a cinematic miracle that cannot just be chalked down to cocaine use. And while Enfant Terrible can’t quite unravel what made Fassbinder live in such a constant state of inspiration, it serves as a fine portrait of a man who never left the set, even when he stopped filming.

Enfant Terrible opened the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in November 2020,when this piece was originally written. It had been originally selected to show at this year’s Festival de Cannes (which was cancelled). It premieres in the UK in March 2021, as part of the virtual edition of BFI Flare. On BFI Player on Friday, April 2nd.

The lights continue to shine at the Black Nights!

Posted on by victorfraga

The year of 2020 has posed enormous challenges for the film industry, but that has not prevented the only Fiapf-accredited A-category film festival in all of Northern Europe from reinventing itself. The 24th edition of PÖFF, which takes place for more than weeks between November 13th and November 29th, will be a hybrid event. Festival director Tiina Lokk commented: “Some of the changes that are being prepared will actually rewire the Festival’s DNA, making it more digital, networked, ubiquitous and inclusive than ever before!”

In total, there will be four competitive strands: the Official Selection Competition, the First Feature Competition, the Baltic Film Competition and Rebels Without a Cause (showcasing experimental cinema). There will also be several non-competitive strands and supporting festivals: KinoFF (for Russian audiences), Youth and Children’s Festival Just Films, PÖFF Shorts and a special selection of German movies (Germany is this year’s focus region). In total, the Festival intends to screen around 200 movies, half of which are available to watch online! To boot, the entire event will be dotted with seminars, workshops, masterclasses, and panel discussions with very special guests, as part of the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event.

A very large chunk of both the films and industry events will be available to press and professionals regardless of the their geographic location. This is something entirely new and unprecedented!

According to Hannes Aava, Programmer and Head of Press and Communications, “PÖFF is looking to continue its mission of highlighting quality auteur cinema, supporting independent filmmakers and their films from all over the world to reach a global stage, offering a first platform and audience to their films and a chance for reviews and sales companies / other festivals’ attention”.

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Diversity is the key

Hannes also highlights the diverse nature of the event: “The Official Selection, First Feature. and Rebels With A Cause competitions that are mostly screening new discoveries having their world, international and European premieres in Tallinn, offering the global industry and press a mix of films that our team finds artistically and culturally relevant. We are also hoping to be continue the succession of events signalling a return to filmmaking, cinema going and cultural exchange”

The Official Selection Competition includes 25 movies from every continent. Several movies address the demise of the Soviet Union – a sensitive topic in a country with a bumpy relationship with their Russians neighbours and their very own Russian minority (which make up nearly 30% of the Baltic nation’s population”. Other topics include a female perspective of WW2 (Henrik Ruben Genz’s Erna at War), a very peculiar and personal type of protest in Mongolia (Byamba Sakhya’s Bedridden), a star-struck teen in the Philippines (Antoinette Jadaone’s Fan Girl), a literal tropical avalanche in Bogota (Erwin Goggel’s Thread of Return) and even a movie about loneliness during lockdown (Mika Kaurismäki’s Gracious Night; also pictured at the top of this article). Just click here for more information.

Tiina Lokk explains: “It is a miraculous feeling to announce such a large and geographically, stylistically, and culturally diverse program. These are strange times and we hope that by screening a bigger selection than usual, we will at least provide the filmmakers a platform to exhibit their creations.”

Two journalists from DMovies will be live at the 24th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, unearthing the most innovative and thought-provoking made in every corner of the planet exclusively for you!

A tale of two ethnicities

Posted on by victorfraga

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is now on its 23rd edition. It takes place between November 15th and December 1st in the Estonian capital. DMovies have followed the event live, and we have published exclusive reviews with all 21 films in Competition and also an interview with the jury president, the iconic British director Mike Newell.

This is has been a very special year for the Festival, as it opened up a side event called KinoFF in Eastern the cities of Narva and Kohtla-Järve. Narva is fright on the border with Russia, and nearly 95% of the population is ethnically Russian, while Kohtla-Järve is more or less evenly split between ethnic Russians and Estonians. This may seem an unremarkable event in any other country, but in Estonia it acquires an entire different dimension. That’s because the two communities have a history of division and resentment, with little prospect of inregration.

We spoke to the Hannes Aava (pictured below), the Programmer and Head of Press and Communicatiosn at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, in order to learn a little bit about the recent history of Estonian cinema, how KinoFF began, , and whether cinema can indeed work as a bridge between two historically segregated communities!

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Victor Fraga – Can you please tell about the connection between the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and ethnic Russians? Have your overcome a lots of barriers?

Hannes Aava – Just over a quarter, 26%, of the population of Estonia is Russian. We have screened in Eastern Estonia before. We used to screen in 11 cities around the country, but we had to drop most of them when we got the Fiapf (International Federation of Film Producers Associations) A-category status. We are only allowed to screen in one city, and we need to apply for extension, for side festivals. Fiapf is a very powerful organisation because the global producers are behind it!

Russian audiences have been the most devoted fans because Russian films are doing very well. Russian audiences naturally tend to watch more Russian films, and there are a lot of good Russian films. Narva and Kohtla-Järve were the first cities that agreed to support us. It would be financially impraticable for us to launch a brand new festival in these cities, so we needed their support. Kohtla-Järve is home to out the mining and oil shale industry, our primary source of energy. Approximately 60% of our energy comes from there. That itself is a very interesting and controversial topic because that’s the dirtiest way of getting energy. Only Estonia and China do that in a large scale.

VF – Can you please tell us where the initiative came from?

HA – It’s a shifting mindset. There was a lot of Russophobia when the country became independent in the 1990s. The Russians didn’t feel very safe here. This is the first time in about 25 years that the Estonians are realising that we shouldn’t neglect the Russian minority.

We have been talking integration for a very long time. The word integration itself is a very problematic word. We should instead talk about peaceful co-existence, so that people don’t lose their identity. The integration narrative always had this secret clause that one should become the other. It suggests that Russians can’t keep their identity as it it, that they should adopt Estonian culture instead. Language is also a very painful topic in our society right now. They are very protective of their language. I think there’s this mindset now: we need to rediscover Narva because it’s a border town. It’s not good for us socially – culturally and politically – that Narva should stay isolated.

VF – At DMovies, we believe that cinema as a tool that unites people. Has Estonian cinema served as a bridge between ethnic Russian and Estonians?

HA – That’s a very good question. Estonia has always had a representation issue in cinema. We have no LGBT movies. I don’t know any Estonian film where the protagonist is LGBT. There’s a short film, but that’s it. Same thing with Russian cinema. The Russians are underrepresented in Estonian film, but this is now beginning to change. There’s a TV series called Burning Land with a Russian cast, that’s something new. It’s shot mostly in Russian language with Russian characters. Something that would never happen 10 years ago.

We still haven’t had a film that connects the two communities. We have very good distribution network for Russian cinema. All the main mainstream comedies, action and auteur films reach the screen and are very popular amongst Russians. But there hasn’t been a story that captures both sides.

VF – The movie Golden Voices (Evgeny Ruman), which is showing at your Festival in Competition this year, deals with the Russian community in Israel. Russians have their own separate video store and cinema culture. Does the same apply to Estonia?

HA – The only sign of physical segregation here is that one fifth of Tallinn’s population lives in Lasnamäe. That’s where you find the Soviet-era concrete blocks. In the heart of the city there is not such segregation, and there are no film stores and cinemas targeted exclusively at Russians. Russians films are totally mixed. However, I can say the Russians in Estonia live in the Russian mediasphere.

VF – In a bubble?

HA – I guess you could say that. That might become a political problem. Because Russian state controls all of the media. Medusa is one large news channel, and their moved their offices to Riga, in Latvia, in order to remain free of state pressure. That could be a liability.

VF – When I interviewed Tiiana Lokk last year she told me that there were 600 cinemas in Estonia at the end of the Soviet era. And that the regime encouraged Estonian culture. Maybe they weren’t that oppressive at all? Can you please talk about Estonian before and after the demise of the USSR?

HA – The Soviet Union’s position towards small countries such as Estonia, on one hand they encouraged the narrative of ethnic independence. On the other hand, there were a lot of restrictions. We couldn’t express ourselves freely. The Soviet Union still determined how Estonians could perform their identity.

The 1990s were a very interesting time because we gained our independence. We actually got cut off from the world because we were no longer part of the Soviet regime, but we weren’t integrated with the West, either. It was a a very harsh period from an economic perspective. All the cinemas closed down. In the end of the 1990s, we had less than 10 functional cinema screens in the country. But things began to change once the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival was established in 1997. We were one of the organisations that pushed for the reopening and digitalisation of cinemas. Now there are 70 or 80 cinema screens around the country.

VF – Narva has been called “the next Donbass”, and there is a lot of speculation about a possible Russian invasion. Have you encountered and hostility towards the Festival? Or could KinoFF help to build bridges and heal wounds from the past?

HA – We have never encountered hostility. We have been greeted with open arms. I was there for the opening ceremony of the Kohtla-Jarve Festival and they asked me: “Why didn’t you come sooner???”. It was a very positive message.

This Festival – along with other initiatives such as music events, musicals and operas that moved towards the East – is not going to be this magical bridge. The two communities won’t immediately extend their hand and agree peace. It’s more about giving them a selection of culture that they can consume at home. Culture is making the world a better place, as long as it’s not controlled by state propaganda.

The picture at the top of this article if from KinoFF at Kohtla-Järve. The two at the bottom are from KinoFF at Kohtla-Järve