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ANIMATION Animation is Flying High
Sander Joon at Glasgow Short Film festival.
Estonian animation is no stranger to international fi lm events. Several fi lms, including Sander Joon’s Sierra and Ülo Pikkov’s ‘Til We Meet Again, are making waves at fi lm festivals. By EFI Photos by Ingrid Mur and AAA Creative
Sander Joon’s dark comedy Sierra premiered at prestigious short fi lm event, Clermont-Ferrand in France at the beginning of this year. Ülo Pikkov’s ‘Til We Meet Again will be reaching international audiences in Annecy - the fi lm has been selected for the Offi cial Short Films Competition. DARK HUMOUR IN THE SPOTLIGHT Sander Joon’s Sierra (2022) takes us on a
Animation is Flying High turbulent 3D race, telling the story of a boy who becomes a car tire. Recently, Sierra received the ARTE Short Film Award at Dresden Filmfest, where the youth jury also honoured the fi lm with a special mention. Besides Dresden, Sierra has travelled to several notable festivals such as Aspen Shortfest, Go Short, Regard, GLAS, San Francisco IFF, IndieLisboa, goEast and Glasgow Short Film Festival. In Scotland, the fi lm received a special mention from the international jury for “its entertaining quality, strong cinematic feeling and cuteness”. In Riga, Sierra received the Best Baltic Short Film award from 2ANNAS. Martinus Klemet also uses 3D animation while expressing surreal ideas. Face Recognition (2021) by Klemet has travelled to animation festivals such as MONSTRA, Stuttgart, Fredrikstad and Brussels IAFF among others. The fi lm premiered last year at Odense IFF, the oldest festival in Denmark. The Danes described the fi lm as follows: “In a world where nothing or no one escapes the law, the only loophole is to get drunk. And in this colourful, absurd and entertaining animation; getting drunk means getting down and running amok”. ROOTS IN DOCUMENTARY ANIMATION Unlike the surreal and often vibrant Estonian drawn and 3D animation, Ülo Pikkov’s stop-motion fi lms have expanded on Estonia’s traumatic past, portraying topics such as deportation, grief, or homesickness. For years, Pikkov has been Estonia’s spokesperson for documentary animation. Pikkov’s latest, ‘Til We Meet
Again (2021) tells a poetic story set on the tiny Estonian island of Ruhnu. The puppets are made entirely of materials found on the island – sand, feathers, stones. Pikkov himself has explained that the fate of the people of Ruhnu has been very much in the crosswinds of history – like bits of reed on the beach that will be carried to another beach on the next wave, or on the next storm. Honouring the heritage of the island, the materials used for the fi lm will be taken back to Ruhnu. This nostalgic, visually captivating stop-motion short premiered at PÖFF Shorts, and is now headed to Annecy.
Buried in Europe (2021), a collaboration between animation industry veterans Hardi Volmer and cinematographer
Sierra by Sander Joon.
The premiere of Sierra at the Clermont-Ferrand festival. Producer Aurela Aasa and director Sander Joon are on the left.
Urmas Jõemees, premiered internationally at Tampere Film Festival in March 2022. A fi lm which claims that “most Europeans are already dead”, walks us through numerous European graveyards, creating patterns with gravestones and sculptures carefully selected to accompany the dead. Volmer and Jõemees, who have worked on a wide range of projects for several decades, have this time moved one step closer to documentary animation.
A good overview of current Estonian animation can be seen at Finland’s Animatricks Animation Festival, taking place at the end of May. Eight animated fi lms from Estonia are travelling there. Among them is Jonas Taul’s black & white puppet fi lm debut A Most Exquisite Man (2021), which previously received the Grand Prix at Fredrikstad Animation Festival, and Best International Film award at Stop Motion Our Fest. Also, two children’s animations – The Turnip (2021) by Piret Sigus and Silja Saarepuu, and Troublemaker Tommy (2021) by Rao and Pauline Heidmets - are invited and will screen in the programme for kids aged 7–11. EF
‘Til We Meet Again by Ülo Pikkov. A Most Exquisite Man by Jonas Taul.
