The
invisible beautiful Estonian film.
This time
I will move away from talking about politics and talk about culture.
Since it is the 100th anniversary of Estonian cinema I might as well
add my 50 cents to the debate.
 |
| Kevade (1969) |
Lets
borrow metaphor from that eh...em.... “masterpiece” of
contemporary American cinema, Shallow Hall, starring Jack Black.
There is a
scene in film where Jack Black asks his co-conspirator that if he was
dating the most beautiful women- Linda Carter if you're interested-
would he care if everybody else thought she was ugly?”
“No!”
his companion says without hesitation
“Because
everybody else would be wrong.”
Let's push
that concept up a gear. Male readers, would you rather date someone
beautiful and invisible or someone plain and visible. How vain are
you? Is there point in dating a model if no-one else can see her?
The
Estonian film industry is both beautiful and invisible.
Some
Estonian film pundits would have you believe that Baltic film is
known in the West, that at the very least Estonia has always had a
reputation for high-quality animation. Don't believe a word of it.
Take it from me, for the average film buff, Estonia's main
contribution to World cinema is the fact that Tarkovsky's science
fiction classic Stalker was filmed here.
Latvia has
it better time. Eisenstein was born there and the city still has
architecture built by his father. That is why it is so important that
they get this anniversary right. It's a chance to show the World the
true beauty of Estonian cinema.
And yes it
is possible for a small country to draw attention to itself with a
very talented film maker and the right distribution. I've
known people who ended up going to Finland because of Aki Kaurismäki.
This is not true for Estonia yet. Anyone who has watched more than
one Estonian film has an interest in Estonia already.
The
main problem is distribution. I found this out when I got chatting
with an American who had been coming to Estonia for a few years. He
wasn't married to an Estonian, Estonia was simply his personal
hobby.
He
proudly reeled off a whole bunch of Estonian and Baltic films which
he has seen, Sugisball (Autumn Ball), Class, Revolution of the Pigs,
Georg (about Georg Ots) and December Heat and smaller indie films
from across the region that I had never heard of.
He
hadn't seen Kevade (Spring), he hadn't seen Viimine Reliikvia (The
Last Relic). He hadn't even heard of them.
“I
am quite knowledgeable about Baltic film, especially Estonian film,”
he confidentially told me.
It's
completely impossible to watch classic Estonian films outside of
Estonia. It defines the limits of the internet as a distribution
tool. Try purchasing Sügis(Autumn) or Mehed ei nuta (Men don't cry)
from the World's biggest online retailer, Amazon. You won't find
them. You have better luck with Sügisball, that you can actually
stream and watch on you PC, if you live in the US, not anywhere else
though. Hence the glib smugness of my American friend.
As
things stand, even for somebody who is already an Estophile to watch
Estonian film, you have to physically live in Estonia.
The next problem is more subtle and it follows on from the first problem. Film is medium for understanding a culture. The films that mean most to the people aren't necessarily the ones the critics likes.
The
Oskar Luts trilogy is closer to the Estonian soul than more
contemporary films because it reflects the way Estonians have always
lived, these films are about the land. Every Estonian has seen Sügis,
not every Estonian has seen Sügisball.
The
rhythm and cadence of these movie is so well known, it's like static,
white noise. When a person in a reality TV show, soap or in real life
says:“Bring me my axe” or “The rats took the cabbage iron and
didn't bring it back,” or “How many times, do I have to kill the
same man,”it resonates. An Estonian understands what this means and
have an emotional response to it. His/her mind harks back to the
other times they have heard the phrase, where he/she was, what he/she
was doing.
We
foreigners don't have this emotional background.
This
cuts both ways of course. Anglo-Saxon culture comes with its own
cultural baggage.
It
is a truly Anglicised Estonian who has an knowing emotional response
to the film Avatar when a character says: “You're not in Kansas any
more, you're on Pandora.”
I
am sure an old flame didn't understand me fully when I said to her:
“Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.”
As
things stand, even for somebody who is already an Estophile to be
able to really understand Estonian film they have to watch it with
Estonians.
Some
things just get lost in translation
There
is a scene in the TV show Wikmani poisid, based on Jaan Kross
semi-autobiographical novel, where old man Wikman is telling one of
the students off for working in the market. The schoolboy says he has
no choice he needs the money.
Eventually
the school master relents but jokingly tells him him he can't wear a
school cap or a black beret because:“Inimesed ütelevad et
Wikmani possid ei ole ainult turukaupmehed, nad on ka Vapsid.”
“People
will think Wikmann boys are not only market sellers but also Vaps”*
How
on Earth do you translate Vaps into English, or any language for that
matter? The way they translated it was simply “fascists.
It was only when I had lived in Estonia a couple of years that I realised I had completely misunderstood it.
It was only when I had lived in Estonia a couple of years that I realised I had completely misunderstood it.
Give
foreigners a chance to discover classic Estonian film. They can bring
a new level of appreciation to the film. Estonian tend to watch
classic Estonian films like zombies. They have seen these films so
often and from such a young age that they have stopped thinking what
these films are actually about.
A
foreigner with a critical eye is
going to notice
that Viimane Reliikvia is really all about money.
The
abbot wants the relics so that pilgrims will come to the monastery
and pay the monks to prayer for their sins. At that time, monasteries
could get very rich by selling salvation. They even have a little
cottage industry selling figurines of the Saint Birgitta. A souvenir
shop for the Medieval tourists. But it's all useless if they don't
even have the relic. The film is anti-clerical and anti-capitalist,
from a Soviet point of view it's ideologically sound.
A
foreigner may go on to explain the concept of a MacGuffin and how the
film has similarities to everything from the Maltese Falcon, to
Hitchcock films, to the Indiana Jones movie.
Since
followers of Estonian films are Estophiles, we what we want out of a
film isn't actually what the average person wants.
Sügisball
sucks because you get this film out to practice Estonian and then
nobody says anything for the first 10 minutes.
Poll's
diaries is worse because it is in German.
“Mina
olin siin” is brilliant because you learn some emm...useful words
immediately.
I
have one last vital thing to say. Be careful if you lend a Estonian
or Estonian-themed film to an Estophile. I once recorded a very rare
film called Letters from the East and lent it to a Estophile friend.
Mikk Mikiver and Kaljo Kiisk are in it. It's really interesting to
see them talking in English.
The
film is about an British Estonian woman visiting Estonia for the
first time in 40 years in the early nineties. Unfortunately I didn't
realise that the story was so close to my friend's personal story
that she couldn't bare to part with it. I never got it back, For four
years I have tried and failed to get a copy of this movie. If you
have a copy could you get in touch.