Reet Sokmann

Based on the tales of Chinese writer Pu Songling, the film depicts the romantic relationships of a Chinese student with an undead girl and a fox spirit maiden. Rainer Sarnet's diploma film.

In the same vein as Meri's other documentations, this one takes advantage of the glasnost policy to discuss the social and ecologic impact of the Russian oil industry on the natives and the lands they inhabit.

Arvo Pärt's work Cecilia, vergine romana was commissioned by the Agency of Preparations for Holy Years in Roma, appointed by the Pope. The work is dedicated to the Santa Cecilia choir and orchestra of the National Academy and to their conductor Myung-Whun Chung. The film recorded the rehearsals in Rome together with composer Arvo Pärt before the premiere in Rome on 19th of November 2000.

Nighttime at the tram depot. A closed tram car, from which a young businessman who fell asleep on the tram finds himself waking up. However, he is not alone...

A group of young people goes for a walk on a summer night which stirs the imagination. They begin telling stories about a girl named Paula, who isn’t among them, but with whom each of them has had a meaningful encounter in the past. This is a romantic drama, structured as a road movie, with a deliberately fragmented narrative style that mirrors the wandering of free thought.

The oak tree in Seja is roughly 700 years old. Around this monumental tree, the peaceful and repetitive life goes on in the village, a group of houses in the middle of the forest. It is an almost unworldly existence in a condition of absolute simplicity where people are grateful for a hot cup of coffee and a good potato harvest.

In Paradisum relates two disturbing stories simultaneously. The female narrator tells her personal tale of imprisonment as the wife of the notorious Estonian serial killer, Andreas Hanni. Although her story is bizarre, it touches familiar themes that run throughout modern life: the desire to be loved and the fear of being alone. Pille Hanni's tale unfolds over cinema vérité images of life in several Estonian prisons. At times the images reflect in a literary way the events of the narration, yet they are representations and impressions, rather than traditional documentary style footage of the people involved. This opens the story to a more general interpretation, often with unsettling results. The parallel contents reveal, at two levels of story and social organisation, how the bizarre and inhuman can be tolerable and even addictive in the face of our fears.

Nelli, a retired former village postman, rides a bicycle along her old postal route through the fading villages of Southern Estonia.

This documentary has been shot during three months on the Yamal Peninsula in West Siberia, where the Nenets have been herding reindeer for about a thousand years. Times ago reindeer herders were assembled into state farm brigades. The Yar-Sale sovkhoz includes 22 brigades, each of which looks after several hundred thousand reindeer. In a year, a brigade travels several thousand kilometres. The calving time in spring, the ty nintch, is the busiest time of the year. The brigade has to make sure that the new-born calves keep up with the herd - bigger rivers must be crossed before the ice breaks. During the polar summer, people work also at night.

The film explores a unique group of people, ballet lovers, whose lives have been captured over the years by the magic of the renowned Mariinsky (Kirov) Opera and Ballet Theatre of St. Petersburg.What has once - privileged Russian art lost and what has it gained? Who is ready to carry on the century-long traditions of ballet? Does this great ballet company have any chance to survive at all?Perhaps our characters are the last witnesses and custodians of the triumphs of the glorious past?

A musical documentary about the composer and teacher Heino Eller. How do you tell the story of a person? How do you tell the story of an artist who lived 100 years ago? Perhaps the art itself speaks for the artist—and perhaps that is enough? What matters more to us—the person, their world, or their work? Undoubtedly, an artist’s work affects both us and our lives. And perhaps that’s why it’s important to know as much as possible about the creator. What is he like, what are his convictions, what is that driving force that gives him no peace, compels him to work, and sometimes pushes him forward even against his own will? Where does this restless state come from, the one that urges him to express his feelings, thoughts, beliefs? And ultimately, what guides the artist—love or something else?