Andres Särev

A comedy about two friends who made a bet over a rare postmark...

It's 1940 - the first summer of the Soviet occupation on the Estonian island Saaremaa. Teenagers stepping in their lives have important decisions to make. Should they support the Soviet regime or join the resistance?

Two proud fisherman families live on a very small island in Estonia. The two fishermen have always bore a grudge against each other. Their stubbornness and disobedience to German occupiers leads to dramatic events where staying alive is worse than death. Since it is impossible to escape public contempt, they have to decide how to redeem themselves.

Tõnis Hoopkaup is the head of a fishing collective in Tagaranna, a village on the Estonian island of Saaremaa. On the day of his wedding to fishing engineer Riina, he receives two important presents – a new trawling net, which he hopes will help him sail past rival collectives, and a cigarette case with an anchor on it. The case reminds him of his soaring pre-war dreams, when he was in love with the daughter of the most powerful man in Tagaranna. But her hard-hearted father put paid to their wedding plans. Now the bookkeeper Lauer has moved into the old house with his sister Lidia, and Tõnis wants to get close to her, as close as he once was with his great love … The personal and professional misconduct of a functionary who risks foundering morals is at the centre of love triangle drama featuring a wealth of local colour and complex characters.

Peeter Saarmann has grown up in the Raidma family with the knowledge that his father was a casualty of war and mother died during evacuation. He is a university student who prepares to get married. During renovation Peeter finds a pre-war newspaper article about an enterprise that seems to upset his stepfather. The night before his wedding day, Peeter runs into a drunk man who calls Peeter an illegitimate offspring. When Peeter hears the truth about his real parents from his stepfather, he has the feeling that this could become crucial for his future plans.

The story of the distressed residents living in poor slums during the economic crisis of the first Estonian Republic in early 1930s. It is the life in the backyard both literally and symbolically. Based on the story "In the Backyard" by Oskar Luts and the drama play directed by Andres Särev.

Professor August Miilas has succeeded in hiding in his private house from the war. He thinks this is mainly caused by his complete devotion to science. As August is not interested in anything that is going on outside his citadel, his family members avoid disturbing him. However, the political situation disrupt August's quietude. Right in the middle of his domestic citadel, the professor finds out about dangerous secrets so that he must give up this apolitical attitude and open up for the new reality.