Tartu College Film Society has been showing different films during winter Sundays. Their program has included both documentaries and feature films. This winter the screenings were started by “Vello Salu – Everyday Mysticism”, on Sunday, January 19. The film won the audience award at the EstDocs festival in November 2019. It is a film about the beauty of growing old, portraying a beloved pastor Vello Salu during his last years, making his final pilgrimage and facing many personal and delicate questions.
The second film was also from the last year´s EstDocs programme – “Tõnu Kõrvits. Moorland Elegies” was shown on Sunday, February 9. Marianne Kõrver’s documentary about Estonia’s titular famous contemporary music composer Tõnu Kõrvits whisks us away on a journey to the soul of an artist.
On March 1, a feature film “The Eternal Road” (Igitee/Ikitie) was screened. It is a co-production between Finland, Estonia and Sweden featuring the unbelievable story based on true events of the American Finns in 1930’s Soviet Union. The dream of ‘worker’s paradise’ soon changes into a hell on earth with the Stalin’s repressions. The film was selected as the Best Finnish Film in 2017.
On Sunday, March 8, two documentary films were screened showing the changes Estonia has gone through before and after regaining independence in 1991. “Rodeo” deals with the rapid ascent to high political office of 32-year old Mart Laar, the youngest prime minister in European history. Closely chronicling the innumerable ups and downs of Laar’s time in public office, the film deals with the storied relationship between Estonia and the Soviet Union, both prior to and during Laar’s stint as Prime Minister of Estonia. “The Year of Dragon” is a documentary from 1988 that takes a chronological view of events in Soviet-occupied Estonia. The period covered in the film is actually from St. George’s Day (Jüripäev) in mid-April, 1988 to the initial declaration of sovereignty by the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR on November 16, 1988 (which was soon thereafter nullified by Moscow).