The film opens the viewer to the current state of Estonian forests and shows how political decisions have affected the use of the common property. The film also offers solutions to move out of the deadlock of the debate and directs attention to the information that has been buried under the messages of controlled communication in the information noise of the forest war.
“This is an important chapter in my life, which should create an understandable background for my relationship with nature. This relationship isn’t just intellectual, but deeply cognitive. This connection is a personal one that changes me in relation to nature. Our film is not brought to life by any third party or organisation. It has been called into existence by filmmakers who understand nature and feel a strong need for professional deepening. Our motivation is to observe the conflict in society through one's specialty and its nature through audiovisual means to depict the key question: where did our forests go?”, Martti Helde told FNE.
Vertical Money is produced by Elina Litvinova through Estonian Three Brothers and coproduced by Armin Karu through Estonian Hansafilm.
"Ironically, most of our wood is being exported to Europe as pellets. This is often the case in other countries as well and in a way this film is a prototype on a global scale", Elina Litvinova told FNE.
The project is supported by the Estonian Film Foundation, as well as the Estonian Cultural Endowment, the Tartu Film Fund, the Viru Film Fund and Hansafilm. The total budget is 162,156 EUR.
The film was shot in more than 60 different locations in Estonia's mainland and islands across 2020 - 2023.
The release of the film is set for 26 January 2024. The local distributor is Hea Film.
Production Information:
Producer:
Three Brothers (Estonia)
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Coproducer:
Hansafilm (Estonia)
Credits:
Director: Martti Helde
Co-writers: Martti Helde, Mattias Veermets
Co-writer & text editor: Pilleriin Raudam
DoP: Mattias Veermets
Editor: Jaak Ollino Jr.
Composer: Sander Mölder
Sound designer: Janne Laine
