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My Joy and The Poll Diaries triumph in Tallinn
By Martin Blaney | December 10, 2010
EurAsia Best Director Award winning Chris Kraus, courtesy PÖFF
The historical Estonian capital of Tallinn should be on everybody’s list of destinations for any time of the year, but in the weeks up to Christmas, the medieval old town is particularly attractive with its Christmas markets and the whiff of mulled wine in the air. For the past 14 years, another good reason to visit Tallinn has been to attend the Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) which was held between November 19 and December 5 under the able leadership of festival director Tiina Lokk.
“PÖFF audience sizes have remained relatively stable in spite of the blowing winds and economic crisis,” Lokk said in her introduction in the festival catalogue. “Last year’s attendance of close to 55,000 is a good indicator. For the sake of comparison, it should be noted that the number is around 300,000 in Berlin and that city is home to several million people! All this is very good – it all shows that Estonians have claimed PÖFF as their own.”
This year, over 200 films from 73 countries were shown at the festival, with Germany well represented by such titles as the German Oscar entry Die Fremde (When We Leave), Tom Tykwer’s Drei (Three), David Sieveking’s David Wants To Fly and Burhan Qurbani’s Shahada as well as numerous co-productions with German participation.
Sergei Loznitsa’s feature debut Schastye Moe (My Joy), which had premiered in this year’s Cannes Competition, picked up the Grand Prix for Best Eurasian Film in the main EurAsia Competition (see review of My Joy in KINO No. 98).
The international jury, which included US producer David Willis and Iranian actress Fatemeh Simin Motamed-Arya, handed the Best Director award to Germany’s Chris Kraus for his third feature Poll (The Poll Diaries) which he had shot as a German-Austrian-Estonian co-production on the Baltic coast in Estonia in summer 2009 (see the portrait of Chris Kraus in KINO No. 96). The historical romantic drama is set in the Baltic German community of Latvia shortly before the outbreak of the First World War and charts a love story between a 13-year-old girl and a revolutionary she hides on a country estate. The lead roles in the Kordes & Kordes production are played by the up-and-coming actress Paula Beer and Estonian theatre star Tambet Tuisk.
At the awards ceremony in Tallinn’s Russian Theatre on the eve of the 23rd European Film Awards, the international jury spoke in its motivation for the award to Kraus of the “outstanding direction of the actors as well as the remarkable achievement in cinematography and the interesting mode of storytelling”. The Poll Diaries are handled internationally by Bavaria Film International and will be released in Germany in early 2011.
Other prizes awarded at the Black Nights’ closing ceremony included the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize for Veiko Ounpuu’s second feature Püha Tonu Kiusamine (The Temptation Of St. Tony) and the International Federation of Film Clubs (FICC) Jury Award for Czech filmmaker Tomas Masin’s 3 Sezony V Pekle (3 Seasons In Hell), while the NETPAC Jury Award was shared between Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli Live and Aktan Arym Kubat’s Svet-Ake (The Light Thief).
There was even more hustle and bustle at this year’s Black Nights festival – and the associated Baltic Event/Black Market programmes – because the Estonian capital was host to the European Film Awards as a kick off for Tallinn’s year-long celebrations as European Capital of Culture.
The onset of extreme wintry conditions and sub-zero temperatures in the festival’s second week led to some guests having to unfortunately cancel their visit or re-route and take longer to arrive. But they were assured a cosy and friendly welcome once they were here.
There was a packed programme of screenings, industry roundtables and other fringe events such as the concert “The Music of Image” by the Brussels Philharmonic – Flanders Orchestra under the direction of Dirk Brossé, but most guests found time to wander through the medieval city streets, visit the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and possibly call by to Estonia’s largest art museum Kumu, the winner of the title European Museum of the Year 2008.
Aitäh, Tallinn! Thank you, Tallinn!
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