3 recently restored gems from the Estonian film archives can be seen in the festival’s Open Archives section, under the umbrella title “Walking, Marching, Running towards Freedom”. The movies selected by curator Johannes Lõhmus showed audiences at the time a path towards something personal, something not part of the official collective hive of the times and all of the directors also paid their price for taking this risk. Leida Laius became the target of a public witch-hunt because of her innovative cinematic language, while Kaljo Kiisk was forced to learn the art of self-criticism.
The films are screened in cooperation with the Hungarian National Film Institute and the Estonian Film Institute, with the support of the Estonian Embassy in Budapest.
The films will be shown with Hungarian and English subtitles.
COLOURFUL DREAMS
(Värvilised unenäod)
1974, 62 min
Directed by Virve Aroja, Jaan Tooming
Music by Arvo Pärt
Cast: Katrine Zilinska, Meelis Küttim, Laur Pihel
Five-year-old Kati is spending summer with her grandmother, where the village lads, animals, flowers, wind and stones all become her playmates. The child’s imagination oscillates between reality and magic, and within a dreamlike expanding timeframe we are taken on a psychedelic, kaleidoscopic journey into the fairy tale realm of childhood.
15 September, 6:30 p.m. | French Institute
Introduction: Johannes Lõhmus
19 September 2:00 p.m. |Toldi cinema
Introduction: Endre Dózsa (NFI)
WEREWOLF
(Libahunt)
1968, 74 min
Directed by Leida Laius
Written by August Kitzberg
Screenplay by Leida Laius, Lembit Remmelgas
Music by Veljo Tormis
Cast: Ene Rämmeld, Malle Klaassen, Evald Hermaküla
In the depths of 19th century backwoods Estonia, amidst pagan rituals and St. John bonfires, the orphan Tiina and her foster brother Margus fall in love. However, the conservative, blinkered village community view the proud, hotblooded girl with suspicion and brand her a werewolf. Leida Laius’s hypnotic, black and white ballad on freedom, ostracism and collective fear is an adaptation of the classic drama by August Kitzberg.
16 september, 9:15 p.m. | French Institute
Introduction: Johannes Lõhmus, curator
19 september, 9:00 p.m. | Uránia cinema
Introduction: Levente Nagy, Research Archivist, NFI Film Archive
MADNESS
(Hullumeelsus)
1968, 79 min
Directed by Kaljo Kiisk
Music by Lembit Veevo
Cast: Jüri Järvet, Vaclovas Blēdis, Mare Garšnek
Late 1944. Several hundred ‘lunatics’ and a single spy in hiding in the mental institution set up in a provincial mansion. Gestapo officer August Windisch turns up on a mission to identify the British agent in the few days remaining. But can he do it when the obsessively ordered and disciplined man is forced to submerge himself in irrationality in order to catch out the spy? Estonian surreal political allegory in the year of the Prague Spring.
17 September, 5:30 p.m. | Uránia cinema
Introduction: Johannes Lõhmus, curator
20 September, 1:45 p.m. | French Institute
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