In an Estonian village, werewolves, spirits, and disease plague villagers as they work to survive the cold, dark winter. Nothing is off-limits: people steal from one another, from their German manor lords, and from spirits, the devil, and Christ. Many of them turn to small thieving creatures known as kratts, who help their masters by stealing even more, even when barns are overflowing. This obsession makes the villagers more and more like the soulless creatures they command — all except a young farm girl, Liina, who is hopelessly and forlornly in love with a village boy named Hans. When her love drives her to desperate and mystical acts, the pragmatic farmers are faced with a question: Is the life they’ve had worth anything, if it lacks a soul? Directed by Rainer Sarnet (Estonia, 2017).
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
In his forty-eight years of existence, Rainer Sarnet has directed five films, lived with three women, accumulated about ten friends, passionately loved Fassbinder and directed theater plays by Przybyszewski, Gorky, and Jelinek. He mostly writes his own scripts but usually bases them on literary classics.
He is captivated by the different facets of the human soul. This was evident in his screen adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot (2011). Following in Dostoyevsky’s footsteps, Sarnet believes one must focus on that which upholds man and culture so that they do not become devalued and start placing value in the banal.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Each year, Scandinavia House presents the films chosen by Nordic countries to compete for the Oscar nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film. This year we will be presenting the 2017 contenders: November (Estonia), You Disappear (Denmark), Under the Tree (Iceland), Tom of Finland (Finland), Thelma (Norway), and The Square (Sweden).
Films in the series include:
November—WED—JAN 3
You Disappear /Du forsvinder—FRI—JAN 5
Under the Tree /Undir trénu—WED—JAN 10
Tom of Finland—FRI—JAN 12
Thelma—WED—JAN 17
The Square—THU—JAN 18
1515006000
1515013200
Image courtesy of Homeless Bob Production
WED—January 3—7 PM
$12 ($7 ASF Members)
115 min. In Estonian with English subtitles