Ardo Ran Varres
Birth : 1974-03-19, Tallinn, Estonia
History
Ardo Ran Varres (born 19 March 1974 in Tallinn) is an Estonian composer and actor.
Ardo Ran Varres studied at the Tallinn Music High School from 1981–1992, graduated in clarinet performance, and at the Higher Theatre School of Estonian Academy of Music from 1992–1996, graduated as an actor. From 2009-2011 he studied composition in Helena Tulve's composition class at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. Varres has played clarinet and saxophone at the Especially Sad Music Ensemble from 1991–1993. From 1996–2001 Varres was employed as an actor at the Rakvere Theatre and from 2001-2003 at the Estonian Drama Theatre, and was described as among "the leading younger [Estonian] actors and actresses of the last decade". From 2003-2011 he was the music director of the Estonian Drama Theatre. Since 2011 Varres has been a freelance artist. He was elected as member of the Estonian Composers Union in 2007.
Ardo Varres has worked with many stage directors at several theatres in Estonia and has played tens of roles (also in Finland, Denmark and Germany). He has written music for more than 50 productions, films, TV and radio productions, for both Estonian and foreign dramaturgy, world classics and modern plays. Varres has also done voice-overs of series for Estonian television channels such as TV3, notably SpongeBob SquarePants, or Käsna-Kalle Kantpüks (until the show's seventh season). He also writes concert music.
In 2022 premiered his first opera The New Old Nick of Hellsbottom. Theatre Vanemuine. Libretto by Kristi Klopets based on A. H. Tammsaare’s book. Musical Director & Conductor Risto Joost. Director Vilppu Kiljunen (Finland). Set Designer Iir Hermeliin
Original Music Composer
A richly animated documentary about the extremely popular caricaturist Gori, whose fate in Estonia at the beginning of the last century shows the balance between power and freedom like a mirror. In the Fellini-like world of Gori (1894-1944), farce and drama, mockery and big politics mix. There is no subject that Gori's pen will not mock until the winds turn and mouths are closed.
Music
The feature film based on Eduard Bornhöhe's story takes the viewer to the early days of the 20th century, when Estonia was still part of the tsarist Russia. Pride in one's nation was emerging and the desire to give something eternal to one's people at any cost - be it a miracle machine flying in the air or valuable literature written in the language of the country. Unfortunately, it was not that easy and sometimes there was lack of talent.
Music
In the Kosovo War, human dignity was shattered by the terrors of the Serbian government and the Albanian liberation army. Truths about the victims’ fates faded away, which is why a Finnish forensic research group led by Helena Ranta got a mission to act as an unbiased agent and investigate the real course of events.
Music
The documentary gives us a look into a year in Estonian recent history, namely the year 2019, which brought us a schism in our politics and our generations. Where are we headed in this unbalanced world? Can we protect our land from our own controversial demands?
Music
Karl and Carla is set in an ironic dystopia from the near future, where adult relationships and interactions are regulated and controlled by the government’s ‘Happiness Institute’.
Music
Grandchildren come to the village of Old Man in the summer for a visit. It is a far cry from the idyllic summer vacation with the grandfather, because the Old Man spends his hard time working on children and his dairy cow. Jumpers do not understand rural manners and cause the prized cow to flee. Now, Old Man and the children have 24 hours to find the cow before the untried udder explodes and causes a dairy nuclear disaster. The old man and the children begin a merciless race as the udder has to be defiled before the mysterious Dairy sends the cow to the heavenly meadow. Along this journey, our heroes face yet another despicable rural hipster, forest beasts, desperate lumberjacks, and a lunatic bear in constipation.
Music
An adventurous tragedy about Estonia's first film maker Johannes Pääsuke and his aspirations to travel around with a film camera and find happiness. Together with a good friend, Volter, Pääsuke will spend an incredible week in Setumaa.
Oskar Kallas
An adventurous tragedy about Estonia's first film maker Johannes Pääsuke and his aspirations to travel around with a film camera and find happiness. Together with a good friend, Volter, Pääsuke will spend an incredible week in Setumaa.
Music
A documentary exploring the difficulties the newly-independent Estonia faced in the early 1990s after emerging from decades of Soviet rule. The film focuses especially on then-32-year-old and inexperienced Mart Laar, who became country's prime minister while there still were tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers in the country.
Guard
Four children - Mari, Sadu, Olav and Anton form a secret society to play hide-and seek games invented by Mari's grandfather, a professor at the university. When the city is attacked by a mysterious poison which turns adults into children our gang embarks on a quest for the antidote.
Music
The main character, Helmi, is born into the house of Baron von Strandmann in Old-Town Tallinn, in 1908. The only thing that she knows for sure about her past is that her mother was an Estonian servant girl. Everything else is a discovery during a life that runs the course of a century - a life that has quite a lot of surprises in store for Helmi. In this house she finds happiness and suffering, passion and disappointment. She grows up alongside young Erik and waits for her big love to blossom. But one floor down lives projectionist Julius - a man who is far from indifferent when it comes to Helmi. All of the biggest historical events of the century leave their mark on the house. Its hardwood floors have born soldiers' gruff boots and gentleman's shiny oxfords. Its walls have held the fates of people from far and near, foreigners and locals. Helmi's home becomes a German salon, a revolution museum, and a working class commune. And as freedom comes, real estate crooks start sniffing ...
Music
Underwater Flights is comprised of ten film short stories that depict events occurring between 1820 and 1940. This was a time when clever men invented flying machines, submarines started traveling underwater, warships were built in Tallinn, bombs were thrown from zeppelins and planes started to fly across oceans. These stories about wild times and creative people are told by film newsreels, private letters, intelligence reports and bedtime stories...
Music
Mati, a 70-year-old bibliophile, cannot cope with his wife's death. As loneliness and indifference overrun his thoughts, he contemplates suicide until he meets a younger man who sparks his interest in life.
Music
September is a film about the complicated choices of simple people. The internationally renowned Estonian author, Jaan Kross (1920-2007) was arrested in 1944 by the Nazis. A year after the Soviet forces entered Tallinn and he was arrested again. The accusation was the same both times: conspiracy with the underground independence revolutionaries. Based on the author's journal, pieces from his oeuvre and interviews, the film creates a story about a few monumental weeks in Tallinn, in September 1944.
Music
It's the early 90's. A new currency is in circulation in Estonia - the kroon. The former federal republic has become a world leader in non-ferrous metal exports. There is a relentless struggle around this criminal business. It brings new victims every day. Estonia ranks first in Europe in terms of the number of killings. This is just the beginning ...
Original Music Composer
A different history of the Cold War: how Estonians under Soviet tyranny began to feel the breeze of freedom when a group of anonymous dreamers successfully used improbable methods to capture the Finnish television signal, a window into Western popular culture, brave but harmless warriors who helped change the fate of an entire nation.
Officer
The young country of Estonia is dancing to the jazzy tune of the 1920's when on December 1, 1924, the capital Tallinn is overrun by members of the Comintern in an attempt to stage a Communist coup. The film follows the fates of a young soldier called Tanel and his wife, a telephone operator named Anna, amidst the ensuing chaos which determines whether the country remains independent or becomes a minor province in the Communist Empire.
Music
After World War II, Estonian (Latvian and Lithuanian) soldiers, airmen and sailors who had fought (been conscripted) on the German side ended in POW camps on the US side. They were the lucky ones. The others went to Siberia. This story is about those soldiers who were sitting in their POW camps when all of a sudden they were conscripted yet one more time, this time into a civil variant of the US Army.
Music
A documentary on the volunteer Estonian Army's defense against the Soviet Army in 1944 with an emphasis on its last stand in the region known as the Blue Hills of Estonia.
