
Liina Tennosaar
Acting
Biography
Liina Tennosaar (born May 23, 1965) is an Estonian stage, film and television actress. Liina Tennosaar was born in Tallinn to Kalmer Tennosaar and Sirje Tennosaar (née Arbi). She has one full sibling and one half-sibling, from her father's second marriage. Her father was a popular Estonian journalist, singer and television personality who is possibly best recalled as "Uncle Kalmer" (Estonian: onu Kalmer), the host of the ETV children's television series Entel-Tentel. Her mother was a stage, film and television actress. She attended primary and secondary schools in Tallinn, graduating in 1982, before studying acting at the Tallinn State Conservatory, Performing Arts Department (now, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre), graduating in 1986. Liina Tennosaar made her television debut at age 22 as Mari in the Ago-Endrik Kerge directed 1983 Soviet-Estonian comedy television feature-length film Püha Susanna ehk meistrite kool. This was followed by the role of Aili Tõru in the 1986 Ago-Endrik Kerge directed television drama film Võtmeküsimus and the role of Mari in the 1987 Peeter Simm directed historical dramatic television film Tants aurukatla ümber, based on the novel of the same name by Estonian author Mats Traat. In 2004, she appeared in the feature-length television film Taksirengit, directed by Jussi Niilekselä and based on a play by Mihkel Ulman. From 1997 until 1999, she played the character of Tiiu on the popular, long-running ETV television drama Õnne 13. She has made appearances on such Estonian television series as Urpo & Turpo, Ohtlik lend, Ühikarotid, Kelgukoerad, Kättemaksukontor, Elu keset linna and Viimane võmm. In 2017, she appeared as Inga in the TV3 mystery-drama series Merivälja. Tennosaar made her feature film debut in 1990 in a starring role as Juuli in the Arvo Kruusement directed Sügis for Tallinnfilm. The film was based on the Oskar Luts novel of the same name and the final part of a trilogy of both the novels and films made based on them. This was followed by a small role in the 1993 Pekka Karjalainen directed comedy Hysteria; a joint Finnish-Estonian production. In 2007, she appeared in a small role in the Veiko Õunpuu directed drama Sügisball; adapted from author Mati Unt's 1979 novel of the same name. That same year she appeared as Viire in the Andres Maimik and Rain Tolk directed road movie comedy Jan Uuspõld läheb Tartusse; a film that portrays Estonian actor Jan Uuspõld as a down-on-his-luck caricature of himself trying to hitchhike from Tallinn to Tartu to perform in a role at the Vanemuine theatre. This was followed by a role in the 2008 Ain Mäeots directed drama Taarka, in which she plays the main character's mother. The film was based on the play of the same name by Võro poet and author Kauksi Ülle. Other notable roles in films include Toomas' mother in the Hannu Salonen directed drama-thriller Vasha in 2009; Riina, in the Ain Mäeots directed drama Deemonid in 2012, and in the Andrejs Ekis and Tanel Ingi directed 2020 comedy Asjad, millest me ei räägi. Tennosaar has also appeared in number of film shorts and student films.
Known For

A group of women create an organization named "Kättemaksukontor" to fight for the rights of women and help solve murder mysteries for the police.
Revenge Office

A comedy-series depicting an Estonian family in 1980s that consists of a rebel-minded grandpa, two siblings, a mother, who is a member of the Soviet Socialist Party, and her lover, who is there, because the real husband is a captain on a foreign-going ship. Aand they have to share their apartment with a true communist and her son, who is an exemplary militiaman.
ENSV

A comical triptych about residents in an apartment block district who long for a better life. When a black hole mysteriously appears in a lilac bush, they will have to face aliens, a giant spider, and an Austrian in breeches.
The Black Hole

This focused family drama with a crime plot begins when Otto Müller, a 65-years-old business legend, is murdered in his own home.
Who Shot Otto Mueller?

If you have the greatest wife on Earth and you are the lousiest man, who are you? The husband of Tuuli Roosma. One day Arbo is fed up with living in the shadow of his wife. He puts his foot down and starts a new life.
Tuuli Roosma mees

Two completely opposite young ladies are forced to work together and solve very different cases. Kadri (Kristel Aaslaid), who takes police work extremely seriously, and Doris (Grete Kuld), who skilfully manipulates her good looks and feminine charms, want to prove to each other that their methods are the best way to make a career in a man's world.
Women in Uniform

Autumn in Estonia, where six people live, six solitudes, prisoners of the monotonous architecture of Soviet-era concrete buildings, in search of human companionship, of love, of a ray of light in an ocean of gray.
Autumn Ball

Tom, a wide-eyed, innocent sixteen year-old, finds himself an unwitting accomplice in a deadly game of vengeance and death when he befriends Artur - a Chechen man, hell bent on revenging the torture and murder of his family - on the streets of Tallinn.
Vasha

When the doorbell rang late night during the Soviet times, if was often the sign of military recruitment. The chain of events in the film begins from the fatal ring at the door, putting the marriage of a young photographer and his beautiful wife to the test. Being afraid of the army, the young family try to escape the situation. However, they are drifting away from freedom.
Armastuse lahinguväljad
In Soviet Estonia, one woman's tragedy intersects with a doctor's inner struggle: to obey the orders of an authoritarian system or risk losing everything in the name of truth.
Serafima

It is the night of March 25, 1949. A full moon hangs over Estonia. Endless rows of cattle cars are waiting to transport thousands of Estonian families, asleep in their homes, to Siberia. The Stalinist regime is ready to treat people like animals.
Awakening

Raul's father Viktor, a Soviet-era Estonian militia officer, shaped his son with communist ideology. Raul was raised in a violent and pathological attitude of the despotic father, blindly driven by the ideology. Driven by his jealousy of his wife and her bohemian lifestyle, Viktor, being a high ranking KGB officer, stated her as a predator against the Soviet nation, and one early morning she is taken by KGB agents to an unknown destination.
One-Dimensional Man

The main character of the film is Paunvere tailor Jorh Adniel Kiir. Two young seamstresses, Juuli and Maali, arrive in Paunvere. At first, Kiir regards them as competitors, but then he establishes friendly relations with them. Kiir marries Juuli, but he is not indifferent to Maali either. The film also follows Kiir's efforts to get his own farm.
Autumn
Hoping to find ways to start living independently, Liina travels from the country to her cousin Ave in the capital.
The Wish Tree

On the shimmering shores of Europe’s otherworldly edge, two teenage girls, Hanake and her best friend are discussing their first love interest while gazing out at yachts sailing to Kyoto. They whisper prayers and poems, the language of their longings. But the magic is fading in their isolated fishing village as they’re dealing with a recent disaster, with some indulging in erotic art, some in spiritual spells. It becomes clear that intimacy alone won’t help them process their loss.
8 Views of Lake Biwa

The first film in the Seto language in the world speaks about the brightest heroine of a small people, the folk singer Hilana Taarka, a woman who lived her whole life as an outcast in a small chimney-less hut; as an unmarried mother of children in poverty, begging her bread, doing odd jobs and singing. She always sang the truth, sometimes bitter, sometimes funny, sometimes cruel. She was feared, despised and coveted. Taarka sang throughout her remarkable life, throughout her fate, from a small Seto village to international fame. And she sang well. Really well. Taarka became the Mother of the Song, a legend. But as a woman, as a member of the community, the Seto people never really accepted her. Taarka - a despised woman and a worshiped singer.
Taarka

Jan Uuspõld is a talented actor who is not up to scratch due to his problems with alcohol. He makes up his mind to stop taking clownish roles and accepts a serious part in a play at Vanemuise theatre instead. His journey from Tallinn to Tartu becomes an unusual and in a way exaggerated voyage depicting the life and mentality of contemporary Estonia through various human natures, attitudes and ways of thinking.
186 Kilometers

An adaptation of the Australian film “The Little Death” (2014). A black comedy about sex, love, relationships and taboo. Five couples, five problems, five ways to solve those problems … not all of these ways are correct. The film is about the taboo things we don’t talk about behind closed doors – on the big screen.
Things, We Do Not Talk About

At the center of Estonia's first full-length horror film are the brothers Markus (Franz Malmsten) and Tom (Kristjan Kasearu), who find themselves in a lonely forest cottage near a large highway.
Dora Who Came from Highway

When Joko, Ants and Reeda, all in their own good reasons, first enter a casino, they can't possibly be aware of the very existence of the demons inside them. Soon enough, they will know. But then it is already too late and their lives are suddenly caught in a fatal vortex.