
Kalju Komissarov
Acting
Biography
Kalju Komissarov (March 8, 1946 Võru – March 6, 2017) was an Estonian actor, theatre and film director, and theatre pedagogue. In 1968 he graduated from Tallinn State Conservatory. 1968-1974 he worked as a film director at Tallinnfilm. 1974-1986 he was the principal stage manager at Noorsooteater, and 1986-1988 at Ugala Theatre. 1986-1995 he was the head of Estonian Music and Theatre Academy's Higher Theatre School (Estonian: Eesti Muusikaakadeemia Kõrgem Lavakunstikool). In 2006 he was awarded with Order of the White Star, III class. Komissarov was married to actress and former Tallinn State Conservatory classmate Helle-Reet Helenurm from 1967 until 1971.
Known For

A medieval love story with lots of adventures. The times are troubled - there's a revolt of peasants going on. To secure its safety a monastery chases for a relics of a holy Brigitte. A nobleman promises to get it if he gets beautiful Agnes as a reward. But she fells in love with a handsome adventurer. The monastery has to act shrewd now and play double game.
The Last Relic

An up-close look into the life of the often misunderstood movie director Grigori Kromanov through the lens of old friends and colleagues.
Grisha

Sailing to South America, the sailing ship "Fortuna" gets stuck in a calm in the middle of the Atlantic. Heat and thirst drive the team crazy, knives are already flashing and the wind is being conjured in the darkness of the night. Captain Kihnu Jõnn has to tame desperate men and trade with heavenly forces in order to bring the ship's crew to the destination port, who want to leave him there.
Forest Captain

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?
All My Lenins

Reet loves her long-distance coxswain husband Rein, but the long separations have tortured her. It seems to her that the man cares more about his work than about her. Rein really loves his work, but his wife just as passionately. He does not understand how loneliness can overwhelm Reet, when women have always been waiting for men from far away. Their family friend Mart loves Reet and cannot see her suffer. It is in Marti's power to offer Reet a safe life, and the woman plagued by internal struggles makes a choice, but happiness seems to slip even further away.
Landing

The events take place in Estonia in a summer in the 1960s. The Boy and the Girl want to go from mainland Estonia to the island of Saaremaa, but they do not have any money to buy the ticket to the ferry. They manage to hide themselves into a lorry that carries hay. Because they are smoking while they are on the lorry, a fire breaks out. The problem is, that the ferry is in the middle of the sea.
The Midday Ferry

Based on true story of Georgian uprising on Texel. Insurrection of captured Soviet-Georgian soldiers conscripted into German Wehrmacht on Holland's Texel Island during German occupation of Holland
Crucified Island

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?
The Ideal Landscape

A young investigator fresh from the university gets assigned an arson case. 18-year-old Epp-Kai has admitted to the crime but he cannot see the girl's motive. His partner, an experienced investigator, already has enough work and doesn't think it's necessary to have further conversations with the accused. The young investigator senses however that Epp-Kai is hiding something.
An Unusual Story

Joonas and Tiidrik are two men from the island of Saaremaa who recklessly escape from the German prison during the First World War. Yet, there are no peaceful times in their home country neither.
Gladiator

The attempted coup of Estonia on Dec. 1, 1924, conducted by Comintern, staged by the Soviet Communists, failed and resulted in many lost lives on both sides. The Communists were forced underground.
Ask the Dead About the Price of Death

A rich businessman moves to countryside to give his life a meaning.
Mindless

Two young nationalists from Soviet Estonia falls under the influence of popular radio DJ Rudolf Talgre, who during the war collaborated with the Nazis and was proud of it and now settled in Sweden. However, one of the friends begins to doubt the correctness of the “voice”, which leads to a quarrel between friends ... After going through betrayal and murder, students - Juhan and Linda - still manage to get into the coveted Sweden, where they actually learn the price of the words of their ideological mentor.
The Lost Ones

The story of the war film is about paths of the Estonian Shooting Corps (formed by the Red Army) during the WW-2 and how the fight forms an usual man to a loyal soldier. Ideologic aspects of the movie are more hidden than in ordinary Soviet war films but they're still existing.
Men in Soldier's Overcoats

Alar Sudak alias Elaan is the don Quijote of Estonian theatre - predestined to eternal loneliness. Sudak's dream to become an officially acknowledged actor has never come true. He has failed the entrace exams to the Drama School of Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and other schools. The documentary tells a story related to the Old Testament - including good-hearted Satan, water wars, unrequited love of theatre, jurisprudence, community's revenge that lasts over several generations and regimes. Elaan's life and destiny includes so much drama that he is unable to let go of it - as his actor's spirit cannot live without it.
Father, Son and Holy Theatre

The film invites its viewers to reflect on where modern sports have come to. Does a young, honest and uncompromising athlete have a future in the sport or must he go along with the dishonest tricks and the mean game that comes from it all?
Hit Back

A talented young student of astronomy and an experienced strict professor both dream about discovering a supernova. When the student experiences beginner's luck, the whole research group will be excited. Then, opposite scientific approaches collide and decisions must be made - now the greatness of the scientist's spirit will open up.
Supernova

Documentary about Hendrik Allik, a revolutionary and a communist, is not just a biographical film. The filmmakers have recorded several episodes from Hendrik Allik's life's marathon. Ene Hion and Andres Sööt have focused on the protagonist's attitudes, evaluations and wisdom.
Marathon

Estonian promotional revue-film created for EXPO 1967 in Montreal.
Black Beard Wants to Know

About the festival that took place in Tbilisi in 1987.