Estonian Films at the EFM
Ghost Mountaineer
100 min / DCP / 1:1.85 / Stereo
EFM screening:
12.02 / 10:00 / CinemaxX Studio 17
Ghost Mountaineer is a youth film with elements of horror. The film is based on real life events which took place during the Soviet era. It tells the story of an Soviet Estonian student hiking group which gets caught up in a series of scary events unfolding in wintry Siberia. The unpopular group leader Olle 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.
Conatct:
Produced by: Kopli Kinokompanii
Producer: Anneli Ahven, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Family Lies
85 min / DCP / 16:9 / 5.1
EFM screening:
12.02 / 10:45 / CinemaxX 1
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 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.
Contact:
Produced by: Filmivabrik
Producer: Marju Lepp, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Mother
89 min / DCP / 1:1.78 / Dolby Digital
EFM screening:
13.02 / 12:00 / CinemaxX 3
(With invitations only)
This small town crime story in the pastel tones of modern retro offers recognition and bitter humour. Mother is a thrilleresque story about rash decisions made in the name of dreams that will have haunting consequences for some time to come.
The film focuses on a woman whose adult son has fallen into a coma after being shot. Taking care of him at home, she has to face a whole town trying to solve the puzzle of what exactly happened. But in a small town, where everyone knows everyone and everything except for what’s right under their nose, the world’s clumsiest crime may go unsolved.
Contact:
Produced by: Meteoriit
Producer: Aet Laigu, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Polar Boy
96 min / DCP 2K / 1:2.35 / Dolby 5.1
EFM screening:
13.02 / 16:30 / MGB-Kino
Mattias has a dream to become a photography student of the Berlin Arts Academy. His dream is constantly put to a test after Mattias falls in love with a beautiful free spirit Hanna. Mattias feels the need to prove Hanna that he can be just as adventurous and unpredictable as she is. He risks everything dear to him, not knowing yet, that Hanna’s bold acts are only the symptoms of bipolar disorder. In the moment of jealousy, Mattias accidentally commits a crime that could put him behind bars for years. The only escape he sees is to get himself declared irresponsible. In order to achieve that, Mattias decides to start faking the illness his girlfriend really has – bipolarity.
Contact:
Produced by: Luxfilm
Producer: Priit Pääsuke, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
House of Mermaids
77 min / DCP 2K / 1:1,66 / Dolby Digital
EFM screening:
14.02 / 17:30 / MGB-Kino
Her name is Samal. In Central Asia "samal" means "wind". Who knows what she is looking for. What does she prefer. Difference. Lost. Suffering. Pain. Silence. Fear. Screaming. Impersonality. Insensibility. Living with lie. Just love or... "Home for Mermaids" is a story about young woman with very special character and her loneliness. She is very energetic, she brake rules. She is bisexual and ... very unhappy.
Contact:
Produced by: Korela Film , RWS (Venemaa)
Producer: Artur Veeber, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Little Comrade (Seltsimees laps) to take part in Berlin Film Festival co-production market
The Little Comrade (Seltsimees laps), the debut feature from Moonika Siimets , will be the first Estonian film to take part in the Berlin international Film Festival co-production market, which takes place February 14th-16th 2016. Every year, the Berlin International Film Festival hosts the two-and-a-half day-long Berlinale Co-Production Market. Five hundred experienced international producers, film financiers and film distributors as well as representatives from funding bodies, sales agents and TV channels come together to initiate international co-productions.
This year, the 20 participants were chosen from more than 300 candidates. Alongside Siimets there are new projects from Ciro Guerra – whose film The Embrace Of The Serpent is a nominee for Best Foreign Film at this year’s Academy Awards - and other renowned directors including Brandon Cronenberg, Jasmila Zbanici and Diego Lerman.
Riina Sildos, the producer of The Little Comrade said that participating in the Berlinale co-production market is a perfect way to launch the film onto the international scene.
“It is a great honour to be selected for the event because it is one of the world’s most important markets,” she says “Our goal is to present the film to international sales agents and, of course, potential partners.”
The Little Comrade is based on the Leelo Tungal books ‘The Little Comrade’ and "Velvet and Sawdust’ and tells the story of six-year-old Leelo whose mother is sent to a Siberian prison camp at the height of the Stalinist regime. Anxiously waiting for the return of her mother, Leelo must learn to remain herself despite the gloomy and tragicomic events that are taking place in her homeland.
Siimets is the director of several well regarded shorts including The Pink Jumper (Roosa kampsun, 2014), The Last Romeo (Viimane Romeo, 2013), The Secret of Salme (Salme saladus, 2012) and Moekoer (2010) .
The Little Comrade is due to be released in 2018. The film is written and directed by Moonika Siimets, the cinematographer is Rein Kotov and the production designer is Jaagup Roomet. The film is produced by Riina Sildos and production company Amrion.
