27-07-2007

First Estonian film in Venice -- Autumn Ball

    FIRST ESTONIAN FILM IN VENICE – "AUTUMN BALL“ by Veiko Õunpuu

    July 26, 2006

    VEIKO ÕUNPUU‘s first full-length feature film, "AUTUMN BALL“, is the first Estonian film to be chosen for a Venice competition program. The festival’s official press release today announced the film for the „Orizzonti“ program. The film first caught the attention of the Venice Director’s Fortnight at a closed screening in Cannes before later being picked up by the official program of the festival.

    VEIKO ÕUNPUU’s last film, the medium-length feature EMPTY, won every award given to films in Estonia in 2006, including Best Film at the Estonian Film Days and the Estonian Film Journalist Association Film of the Year Award. The film premiered in the Karlovy Vary Forum of Independents section and went on to screen at Stockholm, Mannheim-Heidelberg, Seoul, Centre Pompidou, Angers, etc. French and German TV rights were picked up by ARTE earlier this year.

    AUTUMN BALL is a first full-length feature for producer KATRIN KISSA as well. She produced EMPTY with Õunpuu and is developing his next script at the European Audiovisual Enterpeneurs (EAVE) workshop for producers. AUTUMN BALL was produced by Kuukulgur Film and Homeless Bob Production and co-produced by Tugev Tuul Films.

    AUTUMN BALL is a coal-black comedy of solitude, hope and desperation. The film shows some chosen moments from the life of six people living in a sprawling conurbation of tower blocks built during the Soviet era. How close can we get to other human beings? Is it possible to live a life completely devoid of love? Can someone, who has experienced how fragile a state of affairs shared happiness is, trust another again? The gently stylized and indifferent world of the AUTUMN BALL steadily advances towards winter and will not give any answers to these questions. What this world can demonstrate, though, is the possibility for laughter even there, where hope has long since become a sparse commodity.

    The film will premiere in Estonia on Sept. 13, 2007.

    Additional information:

    www.sygisball.ee

    Lili Pilt

    Head of International Relations, Estonian Film Foundation

    +372 533 24 618

    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Katrin Kissa, producer

    +372 566 77 855

    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


    ____________________

    Lili Pilt

    International Relations

    Estonian Film Foundation

    Vana-Viru 3

    10111 Tallinn, Estonia

    e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    phone: +372 627 6068

    fax: +372 627 6061

    mobile: +372 533 24 618

    http://www.efsa.ee




    Last modified on 13-09-2007