Our main representatives with contacts in Cannes are:
Marge Liiske (Managing director) +372 51 48134 - May 14-20
Karlo Funk (Head of Production & Development) +372 56 485966 - May 15-21
Tristan Priimägi (Head of International Relations) +372 53 402010 - May 12-24
Eda Koppel (Information manager) +372 52 03306 - May 12-22
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This year, Katrin Kissa (33) represents Estonia as one of European Film Promotion's newest PRODUCERS ON THE MOVE with her producing debut Autumn Ball, the Venice Horizons award-winning film directed by Veiko Õunpuu.
Her second production The Temptation of St.Tony is co-produced with ATMO of Sweden (Kristina Aberg) and Bronson Club of Finland (Tero Kaukomaa, Jesse Fryckman). It won the MEDIA award in Cannes in 2008 as the most promising new project. The film is currently in post- production, and it tells the story of Tõnu, an affluent middle-aged yuppie who embarks on a quest for moral values, causing misunderstanding by peers and subsequent loss of nerves and fortunes.
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This year there will be market screenings of seven different Estonian features at Marche du Film. Enclosed you will find screening times, and a short overview of the films.
As always, we also will gladly expect you to drop by our stand in Riviera, E12.
Au revoir, and hope to see you in Cannes!
Tristan, Eda, Marge, Karlo
Estonian Film Foundation
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DECEMBER HEAT
May 15 13:30 Star
Action drama
92 min
Colour
Dir. Asko Kase
#7 highest grossing film in Estonia in 2008 (50 369 viewers)
Producer: Artur Talvik, Eetriüksus, Estonia
Newly-weds Tanel and Anna Rõuk decide to leave Estonia to look for luck and better life in Paris. They pack their belongings and go to the Baltic Railway Station on the dark early morning of December 1, 1924. In the previous hours, however, communist revolutionists have launched an attack in Tallinn that changes their plans drastically.
Anna is taken hostage by the communist leader. Tanel manages to escape and must, in the following cliff-hanging events, rescue both his wife and in the end also the young Estonian Republic.
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VASHA
May 15 20:30 Palais G
Drama
100 min
Colour
Dir: Hannu Salonen
National premiere: January 22 2009
Producers:
Piret Tibbo-Hudgins, Allfilm, Estonia
Jarkko Hentula, Juonifilmi, Finland
Philipp Homberg, Homberg Filmproduktion, Germany Wide Eyed Films, Ireland
Tom, an easygoing young boy, ends up in a hospital with a Chechen man Artur, after having saved his life in a bomb explosion. Tom attaches quickly to this mysterious man, helping him to escape from the hospital.
A kind of friendship evolves between them, Artur trying to keep Tom away from his personal war. Tom is thrown into dramatic events that abruptly open his eyes. The chain of death and vengeance seems unstoppable and the question arises if Tom will become a part of it.
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BURATINO, SON OF PINOCCHIO
May 16 20:00 Palais H
Youth comedy
78 min
Colour
Dir: Rasmus Merivoo
Producers:
Estinfilm (Estonia)
Marvofilm (Estonia)
Planet Kino (Russia)
Maria Carlo, a single woman, wishes for a special child. A space- borne magic seed impregnates her only to give birth to Buratino, a wooden boy, who against her will grows up to be an ordinary brat.
With Artemon, Pierrot and Toivo, his weird band pals, they occasionally sell her buns in posh quarters, where goofing around gives them inspiration for their repertoire. The air-heads fall into the trap of Carabas Barabas, a malevolent billionaire, who seeks for a wooden boy-bomb, inside of whom grow millions of magic seeds. When his world conquering plans cross paths with the pranks of the brats, an unseen chaos ensues. When the heart of Malvina, his gorgeous daughter, is up for grabs, Buratino accepts the challenge!
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DISCO & ATOMIC WAR
May 19 17:30 Palais J
Fiction doc
80 min
Colour / B&W
Dir: Jaak Kilmi
Producers:
Kiur Aarma / Eetriüksus (Estonia)
Aleksy Bardy / Helsinki-Filmi (Finland)
Disco and Atomic War tells the story of a strange kind of information war, where a totalitarian regime stands face to face with the heroes of popular culture. And looses. Western popular culture had an incomparable role shaping Soviet children's world-views in those days
- in ways that now seem slightly odd. Finnish television was a window to a world of dreams that the authorities could not block in any way.
Though Finnish channels were banned, many households found some way to access the forbidden fruit. Disco and Atomic War offers its own version of recent history, mixing spy games into a human tragicomedy.
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THE WISH TREE
May 19 20:00 Palais J
Black Comedy
85 min
Colour
Dir. Liina Paakspuu
Producer: Karin Reinberg, Revolver Film
Liina, a young girl from the village, decides to begin an independent life in the city. In the new environment she discovers various microcosms, comprising of the strange and the strangers around us.
Each of them has a personal dream, each is heading somewhere.
Struggling with unimaginable obstacles, Liina finally finds something, which allows her to go on; something she had actually come looking for - herself.
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I WAS HERE
May 19 20:00 Palais K
May 20 18:00 Palais C
Drama
94 min
Colour
Dir: Rene Vilbre
#8 highest grossing film in Estonia in 2008 (46 561 viewers)
Producers:
Riina Sildos, Amrion, Estonia
Aleksi Bardy, Helsinki-Filmi OY, Finland
Nobody is born to be a drug dealer.
Rass, 17, elite school student, though living alone and poorly in an Estonian slum, has dreams about family and love. One night he gets a phone call from his friend who invites him to a party held in honour of Olari, 26, who has just got out of prison. That very same day Rass has sold his cell phone and his jacket in order to buy some food.
Olar offers Rass an opportunity to earn some money. He has to sell drugs. Rass agrees. This is the start for a turbulence of uncontrollable events where he is drawn in. Getting arrested may be his only chance to start that other life he is dreaming about.
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TAARKA
May 20 16:00 Palais C
Drama
99 min
Colour
Dir: Ain Mäeots
The first film in the world made in Seto language
Producer: Anneli Ahven, Exitfilm, Estonia
Taarka is a life story of a woman with a very special destiny, about the Seto people, their life in Russia, the way they ended up in the Republic of Estonia in 1930s, and how they were Estonianized.
A country girl who in spite of fate or maybe due to her misfortune stayed true to her nature, her talent and her calling.
A woman who danced where she could have walked and sang where others might have spoken.
