The film was shot in August and September 2020 in Laitse Radio Station, a now abandoned broadcasting complex built in the 50s, and also in the South of Estonia in the Tartu Film Fund's region.

The Sleeping Beast tells a dark story about a group of children who spend their summer playing in an abandoned collective farm. After a string of events, a local guard Elmar falls into a steep pit in the ground. The children leave him there promising each other not to mention the event to anyone. Elmar becomes a secret asset to their game. Despite the promise, one of the children wants to save the guard, and must decide whether to betray his friends in order to save a life. The Sleeping Beast explores right and wrong without sugarcoating the reality we live in.

“Our aim has been to create a film which is targeted at kids but is not afraid to tackle moral questions that everyone has to overcome when growing up,” the producer Evelin Penttilä told FNE.

The Sleeping Beast is the second children’s feature in collaboration with Stellar Film and Jaak Kilmi. The previous film, the Estonian/Latvian coproduction Christmas in the Jungle, was filmed in 2019 in Indonesia. As with that film, The Sleeping Beast is coproduced with Latvia’s Locomotive. Acme Estonia is also on board as a distributor in Estonia. The project was developed within ScripTeast.

The Sleeping Beast received 478,200 EUR from the Estonian Film Institute, 95,000 EUR from Estonian Cultural Endowment and 60,000 EUR from the Latvian Film Centre. The film received development support from Creative Europe Media.

The Sleeping Beast is set to be released in October 2021.

Production information:

Produced by Stellar Film (Estonia)
Coproduced by Locomotive (Latvia)

Credits:
Director: Jaak Kilmi,
Screenwriter: Aidi Vallik
Producers: Evelin Penttilä
Cinematographer: Elen Lotman