Nüganen’s film depicts the events of the war in 1944 as Estonia faced advances from both the Red Army and the German Army. The story is shown through the eyes of Estonian soldiers, who found they had to pick sides and fight against fellow brothers.

1944 premiered domestically on 15 February 2015 and had the biggest opening week audience in the Estonian film history with 44,879 admissions. It was also a box office hit in Estonia with 115,000 admissions in 2015.

The film is a coproduction between Estonia's Taska Film and Finland's MRP Matila Röhr Productions and it was selected by Estonia for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 88th Academy Awards.