Marianne Ostrat

PRODUCER, ALEXANDRA FILM

1I’m working on several projects and hope they will take the audiences to new terrains emotionally and thematically as they take me creatively to amazing places, spaces and people. My third feature-length film as the delegate producer and first feature documentary - Smoke Sauna Sisterhood by Anna Hints - premiered at the Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Documentary Competition in January. In the film, women gather in a South Estonian smoke sauna, share their innermost secrets and experiences, and regain their strength in the process. It’s a bold, immersive, and very personal theatrical documentary about the healing power of community. Sundance Institute supported Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is an Estonian-French-Icelandic co-production, and my second collaboration with producer and dear friend Hlín Jóhannesdóttir. I co-produced Hlín’s newest fiction feature Driving Mum - a dark comedy by Hilmar Oddsson. Driving Mum premiered, and won the Grand Prix and Best Original Score for Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits, at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in November 2022.

I’m fascinated with film music and sound and have two minority co-productions set up with an Estonian composer and sound designer involved. First of them, Wet Monday, the debut feature of Polish director Justyna Mytnik produced by Lava Films, will enter the filming phase in February. Erki Pärnoja is composing its original score, and top Estonian sound designer Matis Rei is creating the soundscape for which the script offers very interesting possibilities. Just before EFM I presented Boyfriend, the first short film of new talents from Estonia - Leesa Ulanova-Wilson and Braden Wilson aka bagel&lurch - at European Short Pitch. And then there are some in early development. I’m living the dream.

2Smoke Sauna Sisterhood has two market screenings at EFM and I expect next good news from our sales agency Autlook Filmsales. We are finalising Jungle Law, a new short film from Madli Lääne about three teenagers caught in a downward spiral as their innocent flirtation turns into a violent power game. We presented the film at Cannes Court Métrage Focus WIP last year when it was in early editing, and here in Berlin I’m talking to sales agents and festivals to find the best place to world premiere this daring short. Simultaneously, I’m looking for a co-producer for Madli’s upcoming short documentary The Song of Sleepless Nights. And as always, I’m open to good surprises.

Questions

What are you currently working on? Your expectations for this year’s Berlinale?