Linguist Indrek Park has been working with Native American languages for over ten years. The film sees him recording the language of the Mandan tribe, who live in the prairies of North Dakota, on the banks of the Missouri River. The job involves a lot of responsibility, and he is running out of time – his language guide, the 84-year-old Edwin Benson, is the last native speaker of Mandan.
A man sent to Afghanistan years earlier converts to Islam, then returns home to fight a different kind of war.
Autumn 1944, Estonia. Tens of thousands of people leave their homeland in fear of approaching frontline. Some seashore villages remain completely empty. A young woman with huge grey eyes gets off the boat. Eetla leaves the last boat, thus giving up her last chance to escape. Defying the cold wind and rain of September, she returns to the lighthouse which is unexpected to her father Gottfrid, the lighthouse keeper, and herself. Eetla's return becomes her self-encounter and self-recognition.
This is not a biographical film about Veljo Tormis. This film does not browse through old photo albums, nor does it tell stories about the exciting events in the composer’s life. Tormis is sitting in his summer cottage, enjoying the silence around him. He says that he put a full stop to writing music five years ago. He does not create any music any more. Instead of facing his piano he is solving crossword puzzles.
The film consists of three chapters. The Manslayer takes place more than a hundred years ago. The leading character Maara is a young bride who is about to start her life in her new family. The Virgin, set in the spring of 1949, tells the story of a young woman called Elina, who has been deported from Ingria into Estonia during the previous war. The Shadow moves in the present, on the border of real life and fantasy. The main character, Luna Lee, has decided to flee from home. Is there anything besides emptiness somewhere? The film is led by the singularity of the leading character - Maara, Elina and Luna Lee are all played by the same actress.
The small town locals of Mustjala are the Indians of Estonia - they are ravaged by alcoholism and depression, because they've been ignored by the shiny capitalist dream. But then a German tourist ship boards in Mustjala. Could it be the realization of an old Estonian legend about a white ship coming from another land and bringing joy and prosperity for the local people?
Film takes the viewer into the world of men living in small towns in Estonia, showing their everyday thoughts and concerns.
A wintry fairytale for adults. The unusual love story is based on the motifs of H. C. Andersen's fairytale. A woman living in an ice castle lures a boy to her. He becomes so spellbound by the woman and her land of ice that he forgets the real world. The woman hides the secret of why she is living in the cold from the boy. Those, who know the original story by H.C. Andersen, will also remember that only a few lines spoke of the relationship between the boy and the Snow Queen. The question remained unanswered: what did the boy and the Snow Queen do in the ice castle during all the time the girl spent looking for the boy?
In a Christian culture, suicide is a taboo, and a soldier's suicide is a double taboo. Rivo, who has been on a military mission to Afghanistan twice, suffers from a post-traumatic disorder, which ends in suicide. For four years, Rivo's girlfriend Hanna tries to battle his psychological disorder, but then gives up and moves from Estonia to Australia. Six months later Rivo steps in front of a train.
"The Land of Love" is a documentary film about reindeer, oil, politics and poetry. It tells a story about Yuri Vella, a Forest Nenets reindeer herder and poet who lives in the taiga of Western Siberia, and who tries to prove that one person can stand against the great power that is destroying the environment of the native people.
On the Eastern border of the European Union, on the River Narva, separating Estonia and Russia, lies Crow Island. The Krenholm Manufacturing Company founded on that island in 1857 was closed down for good in 2010. There is not a single family in Narva that has not been affected by the bankruptcy of the textile factory. Unemployed men, homeless children, street beggars, drug addicts, thieves—these are the people that live in this Russian-speaking Estonian town. It is like a bad dream. Where can they find salvation? Soviet nostalgia dies hard in this town, as does rage caused by wasted lives. How can they build new lives from these ruins? Is it possible to do the impossible?
The film about Merle Karusoo, the Estonian stage director and collector of local biographies, takes a look at the stories of her own life, reflecting on her personal beliefs and the role of remembering throughout life.
People wander around looking for their lives that will always remain unattainable. This film is about Marju Lepajõe, who was a classical philologist, a religious historian and a lecturer at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Tartu. With a witty charm, Marju reflects on the modern world, where the need and the ability to deal with a subject matter in depth have become insignificant. Even universities, temples of erudition and culture, are losing their intellectual aspect. Where can a scholar find their place in these unfavourable circumstances? The viewers get a chance to follow Marju on her path towards refined wording and personal truth. This is an encounter that broadens the mind, offers comfort and inspires
