NEWS
From Deser Director Kadri Kõusaar is working on her newest film Deserted, which was shot in Jordan. The film with a budget over 1 million euros, is currently in the final stages of postproduction. The modern hostage drama is a co-production between Estonia, Finland, and Sweden.
By Maria Ulfsak Photos by Kadri Kõusaar
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ESTONIAN FILM
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his is a film about an all-con quering love between people from completely different cultural backgrounds who find each other in the desert. It is in the desert where the soul becomes naked and what really matters comes to the surface,” describes Kadri Kõusaar. According to the main producer of Deserted, Aet Laigu, they started work ing on Kõusaar’s fourth film over eight years ago, and were ready to go into pro duction in spring 2020, when the pan demic stopped everything. “Set to be shot in Jordan, which went into full mili tary lockdown, we couldn’t do anything but wait, at the same time being in full-readiness to board the plane, when ever the borders opened. In reality, after every two weeks we had to re-evaluate
the situation, and finally at the end of Oc tober 2020 we could fly. Meanwhile, we lost about 30% of our budget. On the one hand, the six months postponement and the emergency situation caused some ex penses to increase, and on the other hand, we lost most of the market money. Luckily, the Estonian Government came to the rescue and provided crisis-funding for productions affected by the pandem ic. We’ve successfully completed the shoot, and are in the very final stages of post-production and up for international sales and festival premiere,” says the pro ducer. The main character of the film is a Swedish photo journalist Ingrid (Frida Westerdahl). On an assignment to the abandoned, lawless, and apocalyptic Sinai coast, she is kidnapped by a gang of Pales
