This essay looks at a series of touristic shorts, the so-called scenics released during the 1960s... more This essay looks at a series of touristic shorts, the so-called scenics released during the 1960s and 1970s by the two Soviet Estonian film studios, Tallinnfilm and Eesti Telefilm (Estonian Television Film). The films concentrate on the picturesque environment of Tallinn’s Old Town – the oldest part of the city presenting a well-preserved medieval milieu. The representations of the Old Town, as well as its architectural features, has always been an important arena for negotiations between conflicting ideologies and (national) identities, evoking complex issues of power, resistance and adaptation. In the 1960s, the Old Town and the broader subject of medieval heritage became extraordinarily topical for both the academic circles and mass culture, inspiring an extensive array of visual and literary texts. This somewhat nostalgic and romantic “medieval trend” materialized in countless articles of consumer goods, numerous interior designs and in a whole range of motion pictures. The aim ...
Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost (openness and freedom of speech) and perestroika (restru... more Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost (openness and freedom of speech) and perestroika (restruc‐ turing), as well as the subsequent abolishment of film censorship in the second half of the 1980s re‐ sulted in an entirely new take on representations of (urban) spaces in Soviet Estonian cinema, which was closely associated with the dynamic (re)surfacing of national narratives, local identities, and sharp criticism towards Soviet protocols, strategies and administration; this was witnessed, for instance, by films like Please, Smile (or Games for Teenagers, Naerata ometi, directed by Arvo Iho and Leida Laius, 1985), Flamingo, the Bird of Fortune (Õnnelind flamingo, directed by Tõnis Kask, 1986), Circular Courtyard (Ringhoov, directed by Tõnu Virve, 1987) ACTA ACADEMIAE ARTIUM VILNENSIS / 56 2010
Introduction: Postcolonial Theory and the Postcommunist World Ewa Mazierska, Lars Kristensen, Eva... more Introduction: Postcolonial Theory and the Postcommunist World Ewa Mazierska, Lars Kristensen, Eva Naripea 'If Your Car Is Stolen, It Will Soon Be in Poland': Criminal Representations of Poland and the Poles in German Fictional Film of the 1990s Kristin Kopp Neighbours (almost) Like Us: Representation of Germans, Germannness and Germany in Polish Communist and Postcommunist Cinema Ewa Mazierska 'I'm at Home Here': Sudeten Germans in Czech Postcommunist Cinema Petra Hanakova Janosik: The Cross-Border Hero Peter Hames From Nationalism to Rapprochement? Hungary and Romania Onscreen John Cunningham Postcolonial Fantasies. Imagining the Balkans: The Polish Popular Cinema of WAadysAaw Pasikowski El'bieta Ostrowska The Distant among Us: Kolonel Bunker (1998) in a Postcolonial Context Bruce Williams New Neighbours, Old Habits, and Nobody's Children: Croatia in the Face of Old Yugoslavia Vlastimir Sudar 'Narcissism of Minor Differences'? Problems of 'Ma...
Cinema and Crisis: Film and Contemporary Europe. Eds. Thomas Austin and Angelous Koutsourakis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 119-135, 2020
This article analyses the spatial representations of "The Last Relic" (Viimne reliikvia, Grigori ... more This article analyses the spatial representations of "The Last Relic" (Viimne reliikvia, Grigori Kromanov, 1969) and "Between Three Plagues" (Kolme katku va hel, Virve Aruoja, 1970). While almost diametrically different in terms of intention, execution and reception, the films exemplify the complex interplay of the past and the present that is typical to screen adaptations of historical fiction. "The Last Relic" and "Between Three Plagues" belong to the same wave of cinematic works that was inspired by debates on the architectural heritage of Tallinn's Old Town in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Using this historical urban environment, as well as its broader field of connotations, as a central point of reference, the films provide intriguing critiques of the late Soviet period that was characterised by negotiations of power, identity and history. As specimens of the heritage film genre, "The Last Relic" and "Between Three Plagues" open up a room for discussing the discursive intricacies of narrating the nation, demonstrating that industrial conditions, audiovisual structures and ideological undercurrents can sometimes lead to unexpected, even conflicting constellations.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Estonia experienced a radical socio-economic transformati... more After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Estonia experienced a radical socio-economic transformation process. In this article, we examine how this reconfiguration of society finds its expression in Estonian film noir of the 1990s. The transformation process generated spatiotemporal effects, reflecting the neoliberal conversion from the public to the private, and shifted the axis of identification from horizontal to vertical. The new constellations of power generated centripetal and centrifugal effects, creating winners and losers, the included and the excluded. The 1990s Estonian films noir focus on the losers of a period that was considered by many Estonians as a lost decade. Similar to American film noir of the 1940s and 1950s, the portrayals of doomed characters in a universe without moral points of orientation reflect the paradox of the rise of individualism in a world where the domestic sphere is in crisis. The doomed protagonist, the visual and narrative bleakness of the 1990s Estonian films noir, is the subject of our chronotopic analysis. The dark side of post-Soviet transformation, both in socio-economic and psychological terms, resonates in these films. We argue that the chronotope of the 1990s Estonian films noir is the outopia, the no-place.
This article investigates three animated science fiction shorts by Avo Paistik – Sunday (Pühapäev... more This article investigates three animated science fiction shorts by Avo Paistik – Sunday (Pühapäev, 1977), Vacuum Cleaner (Tolmuimeja, 1978) and Klaabu in Space (Klaabu kosmoses, 1981), focusing on their political (under)currents and aesthetic overtones. Examining their texts as well as contexts, I suggest that Paistik took advantage of the revision of generic hierarchies in the Soviet Union of the 1970s, mobilised several central tropes of the genre and seized opportunities offered by the vague status of animation's supposed spectatorship in order to produce ideologically subversive and aesthetically nonconformist films. His films, as well as critiques, however, were born and ultimately remained within the limits of late-Soviet socio-political and film industrial frameworks, betraying thus not only patterns of ‘resistance’ but perhaps even more importantly those of ‘adaptation’.
This article examines five films by Veiko Õunpuu, Estonia’s most renowned contemporary director –... more This article examines five films by Veiko Õunpuu, Estonia’s most renowned contemporary director – Empty (Tühirand, Estonia, 2006), Autumn Ball (Sügisball, Estonia, 2007), Temptations of St Tony (Püha Tõnu kiusamine, Estonia/Finland/Sweden, 2009), Free Range: Ballad on Approving of the World (Free Range: ballaad maailma heakskiitmisest, Estonia, 2013) and Roukli (Estonia, 2015), focusing on his representations of neoliberalism and especially its effect on the emotional and intimate lives of the characters. We argue that the characters of his films typically reject the conventional romance promoted by neoliberal discourses, including Hollywood cinema, yet this does not make them happy, but disoriented and restless. The repudiation of ‘emotional capitalism’ also pertains to the way Õunpuu’s films are conceived and executed. Most importantly, he resists the conventions of Hollywood cinema, including a classical script and happy ending, and also sets and shoots his films in peripheral places. Our main theoretical framework is the concept of ‘emotional capitalism’ as elaborated by Eva Illouz.
This essay looks at a series of touristic shorts, the so-called scenics released during the 1960s... more This essay looks at a series of touristic shorts, the so-called scenics released during the 1960s and 1970s by the two Soviet Estonian film studios, Tallinnfilm and Eesti Telefilm (Estonian Television Film). The films concentrate on the picturesque environment of Tallinn’s Old Town – the oldest part of the city presenting a well-preserved medieval milieu. The representations of the Old Town, as well as its architectural features, has always been an important arena for negotiations between conflicting ideologies and (national) identities, evoking complex issues of power, resistance and adaptation. In the 1960s, the Old Town and the broader subject of medieval heritage became extraordinarily topical for both the academic circles and mass culture, inspiring an extensive array of visual and literary texts. This somewhat nostalgic and romantic “medieval trend” materialized in countless articles of consumer goods, numerous interior designs and in a whole range of motion pictures. The aim ...
Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost (openness and freedom of speech) and perestroika (restru... more Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost (openness and freedom of speech) and perestroika (restruc‐ turing), as well as the subsequent abolishment of film censorship in the second half of the 1980s re‐ sulted in an entirely new take on representations of (urban) spaces in Soviet Estonian cinema, which was closely associated with the dynamic (re)surfacing of national narratives, local identities, and sharp criticism towards Soviet protocols, strategies and administration; this was witnessed, for instance, by films like Please, Smile (or Games for Teenagers, Naerata ometi, directed by Arvo Iho and Leida Laius, 1985), Flamingo, the Bird of Fortune (Õnnelind flamingo, directed by Tõnis Kask, 1986), Circular Courtyard (Ringhoov, directed by Tõnu Virve, 1987) ACTA ACADEMIAE ARTIUM VILNENSIS / 56 2010
Introduction: Postcolonial Theory and the Postcommunist World Ewa Mazierska, Lars Kristensen, Eva... more Introduction: Postcolonial Theory and the Postcommunist World Ewa Mazierska, Lars Kristensen, Eva Naripea 'If Your Car Is Stolen, It Will Soon Be in Poland': Criminal Representations of Poland and the Poles in German Fictional Film of the 1990s Kristin Kopp Neighbours (almost) Like Us: Representation of Germans, Germannness and Germany in Polish Communist and Postcommunist Cinema Ewa Mazierska 'I'm at Home Here': Sudeten Germans in Czech Postcommunist Cinema Petra Hanakova Janosik: The Cross-Border Hero Peter Hames From Nationalism to Rapprochement? Hungary and Romania Onscreen John Cunningham Postcolonial Fantasies. Imagining the Balkans: The Polish Popular Cinema of WAadysAaw Pasikowski El'bieta Ostrowska The Distant among Us: Kolonel Bunker (1998) in a Postcolonial Context Bruce Williams New Neighbours, Old Habits, and Nobody's Children: Croatia in the Face of Old Yugoslavia Vlastimir Sudar 'Narcissism of Minor Differences'? Problems of 'Ma...
Cinema and Crisis: Film and Contemporary Europe. Eds. Thomas Austin and Angelous Koutsourakis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 119-135, 2020
This article analyses the spatial representations of "The Last Relic" (Viimne reliikvia, Grigori ... more This article analyses the spatial representations of "The Last Relic" (Viimne reliikvia, Grigori Kromanov, 1969) and "Between Three Plagues" (Kolme katku va hel, Virve Aruoja, 1970). While almost diametrically different in terms of intention, execution and reception, the films exemplify the complex interplay of the past and the present that is typical to screen adaptations of historical fiction. "The Last Relic" and "Between Three Plagues" belong to the same wave of cinematic works that was inspired by debates on the architectural heritage of Tallinn's Old Town in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Using this historical urban environment, as well as its broader field of connotations, as a central point of reference, the films provide intriguing critiques of the late Soviet period that was characterised by negotiations of power, identity and history. As specimens of the heritage film genre, "The Last Relic" and "Between Three Plagues" open up a room for discussing the discursive intricacies of narrating the nation, demonstrating that industrial conditions, audiovisual structures and ideological undercurrents can sometimes lead to unexpected, even conflicting constellations.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Estonia experienced a radical socio-economic transformati... more After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Estonia experienced a radical socio-economic transformation process. In this article, we examine how this reconfiguration of society finds its expression in Estonian film noir of the 1990s. The transformation process generated spatiotemporal effects, reflecting the neoliberal conversion from the public to the private, and shifted the axis of identification from horizontal to vertical. The new constellations of power generated centripetal and centrifugal effects, creating winners and losers, the included and the excluded. The 1990s Estonian films noir focus on the losers of a period that was considered by many Estonians as a lost decade. Similar to American film noir of the 1940s and 1950s, the portrayals of doomed characters in a universe without moral points of orientation reflect the paradox of the rise of individualism in a world where the domestic sphere is in crisis. The doomed protagonist, the visual and narrative bleakness of the 1990s Estonian films noir, is the subject of our chronotopic analysis. The dark side of post-Soviet transformation, both in socio-economic and psychological terms, resonates in these films. We argue that the chronotope of the 1990s Estonian films noir is the outopia, the no-place.
This article investigates three animated science fiction shorts by Avo Paistik – Sunday (Pühapäev... more This article investigates three animated science fiction shorts by Avo Paistik – Sunday (Pühapäev, 1977), Vacuum Cleaner (Tolmuimeja, 1978) and Klaabu in Space (Klaabu kosmoses, 1981), focusing on their political (under)currents and aesthetic overtones. Examining their texts as well as contexts, I suggest that Paistik took advantage of the revision of generic hierarchies in the Soviet Union of the 1970s, mobilised several central tropes of the genre and seized opportunities offered by the vague status of animation's supposed spectatorship in order to produce ideologically subversive and aesthetically nonconformist films. His films, as well as critiques, however, were born and ultimately remained within the limits of late-Soviet socio-political and film industrial frameworks, betraying thus not only patterns of ‘resistance’ but perhaps even more importantly those of ‘adaptation’.
This article examines five films by Veiko Õunpuu, Estonia’s most renowned contemporary director –... more This article examines five films by Veiko Õunpuu, Estonia’s most renowned contemporary director – Empty (Tühirand, Estonia, 2006), Autumn Ball (Sügisball, Estonia, 2007), Temptations of St Tony (Püha Tõnu kiusamine, Estonia/Finland/Sweden, 2009), Free Range: Ballad on Approving of the World (Free Range: ballaad maailma heakskiitmisest, Estonia, 2013) and Roukli (Estonia, 2015), focusing on his representations of neoliberalism and especially its effect on the emotional and intimate lives of the characters. We argue that the characters of his films typically reject the conventional romance promoted by neoliberal discourses, including Hollywood cinema, yet this does not make them happy, but disoriented and restless. The repudiation of ‘emotional capitalism’ also pertains to the way Õunpuu’s films are conceived and executed. Most importantly, he resists the conventions of Hollywood cinema, including a classical script and happy ending, and also sets and shoots his films in peripheral places. Our main theoretical framework is the concept of ‘emotional capitalism’ as elaborated by Eva Illouz.
After the demise of "crude communism" practiced in the Soviet Union and its satellites, the three... more After the demise of "crude communism" practiced in the Soviet Union and its satellites, the three Baltic states, alongside Russia, opted for a path of extreme neoliberalization, while the Visegrád countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) chose a more moderate, "embedded" type of neoliberalism that retained some elements of socialism and welfare state. The achievements of the former earned the region a flattering title of the Baltic Tiger from the elite financial press, which after the cataclysms of recent financial and economic crisis was reserved to
Eesti kino on valdavalt ekraniseeringute kino. Ning osaliselt just seetõttu on tema maine ja rets... more Eesti kino on valdavalt ekraniseeringute kino. Ning osaliselt just seetõttu on tema maine ja retseptsioon läbi aegade kannatanud "väiksema venna" sündroomi all, mille võtab hästi kokku James Naremore'i koostatud artiklikogumiku "Film Adaptation" sissejuhatuses tootud nali, õigemini ühe The New Yorkeris ilmunud karikatuuri kirjeldus, mida Alfred Hitchcock olla Francois Truffaut'le ühes intervjuus tutvustanud: kaks kitse mäletsevad filmikarpide hunniku kõrval ja üks kits ütleb teisele: "Mulle isiklikult meeldis raamat rohkem."
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