Margus Õunapuu

To understand the international phenomenon of Uku Kuut means to understand the ability of different musical niches, sub-genres and hidden creative explosions to not only exist, but flourish, completely independently of the mainstream. Kuut’s life, mothered by Maryn E.Coote (who you may know as the Estonian jazz diva Marju Kuut), took him from the Soviet Union to a refuge in Sweden, music studios in Los Angeles, back to a re-independent Estonia and later, fighting ALS, to loudspeakers all around the world.

To understand the international phenomenon of Uku Kuut means to understand the ability of different musical niches, sub-genres and hidden creative explosions to not only exist, but flourish, completely independently of the mainstream. Kuut’s life, mothered by Maryn E.Coote (who you may know as the Estonian jazz diva Marju Kuut), took him from the Soviet Union to a refuge in Sweden, music studios in Los Angeles, back to a re-independent Estonia and later, fighting ALS, to loudspeakers all around the world.

An experimental shale-oil essay starring people, industry, and nature.

Documentary about Estonian rock music as a birth-story of a fresh thought in the contradictional Soviet cultural space. A world of contrasts – pioneers placing flower chaplets to Lenin’s monument and Scott McKenzie “If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear flowers in your head”. First Estonian beat-bands were born already in the early 60’s. Names like “Juuniorid”, “Rütmikud”, “Optimistid”, “Mikronid”, “Kristallid”, “Virmalised” and a lot of others, not so well known, performed almost every week on youth dance-nights. The repertoire was mainly acquired by listening and recording music from foreign radio stations with the static noise of the radio. Radio Luxemburg and a lot of other radio stations playing new music, like Radio Caroline and Radio Sweden, became windows to the music world. On 28 April, 1968, the Puhkeparkide Direktsioon and Tallinn Beat Club organized the first festival-like youth music event in Estonia and in whole Soviet Union.

수천 년 전 고대 중국, 한 남자는 그의 연인과 다시 만날 수 있기를 희망하고 그런 기회를 가지게 된다. 하지만 그것은 현재의 생이 아니라, 차가운 북쪽의 현대의 핀란드에서를 의미한다. 영화 옥전사의 시간은 고대 중국과 현대의 핀란드와 연결되어있다. 론야는 예전 남자친구 카이의 제련도구들을 상푸라는 골동품 점에 가져다 주게 된다. 칼레발라 신화 연구가인 베르그는 론야가 갖고 온 골동품을 보는 중 카이의 손톱과 머리카락을 갈아 만든 유기분말이 손에 묻는다. 때마침 중국 '삼포'를 연구하던 중에, 자기 손에 묻었던 가루에 반응하는 상자를 보자 카이를 찾아가 머리카락과 손톱을 얻어와 다시 시험해본다. 카이가 설화 속 대장장이 아들이 환생한 것이라 확신한 베르그는, 상자를 들고 그를 찾아가 열어보도록 설득한다. 무한한 힘과 부가 들었을 것이라고 생각한 베르그는 카이가 열어준 상자를 먼저 들여다 보다가, 신타이가 봉인시켰던 녹트레스의 마지막 아들에게 육신을 점령당하고 만다. 친구인 척 카이에게 삼포를 만들어 열게한 악마는 그 속에서 지옥이 열리게 하고, 온 세상은 멈춰버린다.

A quiet Tarkovskian drama about an old man who lives alone on a deserted island which the Soviet fighter planes use for nighttime target practicing. A young mute boy is sent from the mainland to keep him company. Both are haunted by memories, the boy about his mother and the old man about his younger days as a missionary in Africa.

Young and active nationalist Aleksander Kesküla makes up his mind to use Lenin, the Bolsheviks' leader, in order to start a revolution in Russia with German money and create a new national state of Estonia in the north-east of Russia. For security reasons, five doubles will be found and trained for Lenin. All of them are finally sent to Russia to instigate the revolution. How will the real Lenin put up with all this?

In August, 1991, Estonia reclaims its independence from the USSR and brings to its national bank nearly $1 billion in gold bullion hidden in Paris for 50 years. Russian mobsters have a bold plan to hijack the gold after shutting down the capital's power at midnight. For this they need Toivo, an electrical technician. His wife is pregnant and she urges him to take the job ("$5000 buys lots of baby food"). After Toivo leaves for the plant, his wife goes into labor. Birth and blackout happen simultaneously; the baby needs an incubator, but there's no power. Jealousies within the Mob undercut the plan's smooth operation, and soon the Mob has Toivo to deal with as well.