pühapäev, 18. oktoober 2009

Estonian films on the history of Estonia

I just saw the "Names in Marble" movie on DVD, so when looking on IMDb for Estonian films about Estonia's and Estonians' history, I felt compelled to write a primer, a list of Estonian movies to those interested in Estonian history. The list is by no means complete.

  • "Noored kotkad" (1927, IMDb score 8.2/10, roughly titled "Young Eagles", Wikipedia article) is one of only very few Estonian films made before 1940 that wholly remained intact. It depicts the War of Independence.
  • "Inimesed sõdurisinelis" (1968, IMDb score 7.1/10, roughly "Humans in Soldier's Uniform" — inimesed means both 'people' and 'humans' in plural form) is a film made during Soviet times about Estonian Shooting Corps, formed by the Red Army and so these men fought for that side during WWII.
  • "Tants aurukatla ümber" (1987, IMDb score 8.6/10, roughly "The Dance Around a Steam Boiler"). This one chronicles peasant life throughout much of the century until about 1986/1987.
  • "Äratus" (1989, IMDb score 6.8/10, roughly "Wakeup"). This one is about the March-deportations of Estonians to Siberia. That one was made under the Soviet reign, but at the time of glasnost. I recently saw that on TV.
  • Then there is "Need vanad armastuskirjad" (1992, IMDb score 6.8/10, "Those Old Love Letters"), about the adult life of Raimond Valgre, an Estonian composer. Throughout the film one will also see some of the history of Estonia throughout approximately 1930–1949.
  • "August 1991" (2005, IMDb score 6.9/10), a TV drama production on video made by Ilmar Raag chronicles the events of the month in 1991 when Estonia regained independence.
  • "Georg" (2007, IMDb score 7.2/10) is about the life and times of Georg Ots, an all famous (both in Estonia and all of the Soviet bloc) opera singer and baritone. The film also dwells around war-time, WWII, more specifically.
I don't know if "Tants aurukatla ümber" is a staple on local TV, but it's the one movie that I liked the most and it's also one of those in this list that has the highest overall rating.

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