Paul Poom

Paul Poom

Birth : 1958-06-20,

History

Paul Poom (born 20 June 1958) is a former Estonian stage, film, television, and radio actor whose career began in the late 1970s and ended in 1993 after an assault left him permanently disabled. Paul Poom was born and raised in Tallinn, where he attended primary and secondary schools; he is a 1976 graduate of Tallinn 37th Secondary School. Afterward, he enrolled in the Tallinn State Conservatory's (now, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre) Performing Arts Department to study acting under course instructor Merle Karusoo, who instructed the course in the educational theory and practice of Soviet pedagogue Anton Makarenko. Poom's first stage role was as a boy who runs away from home in a 1978 production of Rein Saluri's 1977 play Poiste sõidud at the Estonian Drama Theatre, directed by Mikk Mikiver. Poom would reprise the role for a 1980 Eesti Televisioon (ETV) television play. Poom graduated in 1980; among his diploma productions were the roles of Semjon Karabanov and Perets in Makarenko Colony in 1979 at the Estonian State Youth Theatre (now, Tallinn City Theatre) which was adapted from the Anton Makarenko-penned 1933 novel The Pedagogical Poem, and Don Juan in the Molière-penned 1665 comedy Le Festin de Pierre in 1980 at the Estonian Drama Theatre in Tallinn (then known as the Viktor Kingissepp Tallinn State Drama Theatre) and the Ugala theatre in Viljandi. Graduating classmates of Poom's included actors Roman Baskin, Guido Kangur, Arvo Kukumägi, Ain Lutsepp, Anne Veesaar, and Ülle Kaljuste. Paul Poom's first feature film role was as Peeter Viksur in the Peeter Simm-directed historical agitprop drama Ideaalmaastik in 1980 for Tallinnfilm which takes place just after World War II on an Estonian collective farm. This was followed by a smaller role in the 1981 Veljo Käsper-directed melodrama Pihlakaväravad. Poom appeared in approximately twelve feature film roles. His most prominent roles in feature films include that of Peetrus in the 1983 Kaljo Kiisk-directed Nipernaadi, which was a film adaptation of the 1928 novel Toomas Nipernaadi by August Gailit; as Cown in the 1984 Tõnis Kask-directed drama Kaks paari ja üksindus; as Aadu Kaarjas in the 1988 Aare Tilk-directed short feature film comedy Giordano; as Lembit in the 1989 Leida Laius-directed drama Varastatud kohtumine; and as Valter in the 1990 Sulev Keedus-directed period drama film Ainus pühapäev. His last appearance in a feature film was in the 1994 Jüri Sillart-directed romantic drama Victoria (Ühe armastuse lugu), based on the 1898 novel Victoria by Knut Hamsun, and filmed prior to the 1993 assault that left him disabled.

Profile

Paul Poom
Paul Poom

Movies

Come Back, Lumumba
Aurora, the new head of the culture centre in a small Estonian town, and her ward, nicknamed Lumumba, change the lives of Rein and his father who are crushed with grief. Together with their friend Elsa, the boys decide to introduce Rein's father to Aurora in order to make them feel less lonely.
Handicapped Brides
Juhan
Rich nephews and beautiful girls can not get married, especially when neither of them have actually seen each other.
Stolen Meeting
A mother released from a prison camp in Russia finds her son, but realises that reconciliation is impossible.
Giordano
Aadu Kaarjas, fotograaf
The protagonist of this satirical short is a photographer whose camera captures photos of people's true nature. We often have to ask ourselves whether we see the truth around us. But do we want to see it?
Dance Around the Steam Boiler
The movie travels through the 20th century by monitoring a steam boiler. We see the history of Estonia through life, agricultural work and people at different times.
The Adventurer
Peetrus
This inventive, tongue-in-cheek comedy-drama not only reveals the charms of the Estonian countryside, but something of director (Kaljo Kiisk)'s sense of amusement as well. The hero of the title, Toomas Nipernaadi (Tõnu Kark) is first seen roaming the rural landscape, going from village to village looking for the woman of his dreams. He wears a bedraggled white suit but generously pays for any lodging he needs or in one case, even buys a farm. Nipernaadi has a way with words and enchants those he meets with his wild stories about himself. Women find him appealing and the men are entertained as he moves from one locale to the next.
Doubles
Mechanic
A musical comedy about singer Toomas Aringus and rally driver Mati Uibo, whom journalist Tiina Salum considers to be one and the same person due to their external resemblance.
Arabella, the Pirate's Daughter
Helmsman of the Warship
Arabella is a daughter of the world's most terrifying pirate captain. She loves her father but also dreams about a life of a usual girl. One day a weird stranger is saved from the sea who will be the only friend of Arabella. At the same time a rival pirate called Raudpats plans to kidnap the girl. Will she be safe and can she ever live a normal life?
The Ideal Landscape
Peeter Viksur
In post-World War II Estonia, Mait Kukemeri, an activist of the Young Communist League arrives to the Metsa collective farm in the back of a traveling cinema truck. As a commissary of the spring sowing, he has orders to usher all the people to the field, even if the water is high enough to soak your boots and the machines sink in the mud. Harald Tuvikene, the head of the farm, keeps dragging his feet, trying to pitch his peasant wisdom against the senseless demands of the central power. For the first time in his life, Kukemeri faces a real problem - does he do what's right or does he follow the party's inept commands in order to further his own career? He starts ignoring the party assignments and gets involved with the local village life and the local pioneer activist, a young woman named Liina. Nobody wants to sow before the time is right and Kukemeri gets tangled in the web of white lies to his bosses. But no one can keep anything secret from the Communist party for long.