No Cho

Andres Puustusmaa’s new drama One-dimensional Man is produced by Katerina Monastyrskaya, from Leo Films (Estonia) and co-produced by Roberts Vinovskis from Studio Locomotive (Latvia). The film is in post-production at the moment. One-dimensional Man has a budget of approximately 500 000 euros.

By EFI Photos by LEO Films

The film is about Raul, who is raised and shaped by his father Viktor, a Soviet-era Estonian militia officer. Raul grows up influenced by the violent and pathological attitude of his despotic father. He follows in Viktor’s footsteps, and being a committed com- munist joins a spy ring. But unlike his father, he doesn’t achieve great success or high rank.

One day Raul learns that his superior has been uncovered and jailed. This means Raul should disappear as soon as possible. But the same day he is involved in a brutal fight on the street. The victim is a young Chinese woman. While trying to help her, Raul accidently kills one of the attackers. He takes the woman home and takes care of her. Next morning Raul is ready to leave. But the woman begs him not to leave her alone and to take her with him. The police is following them and Raul’s plan now is to reach China…

The script is written by Andres Puustusmaa himself. The story takes place in two periods, modern day Estonia and Soviet Estonia from the 80s-90s. According to the director, the main question of the story is when do we lose freedom of choice. “There is no choice, only the illusion of choice. The widespread availability of television, radio, and nowadays internet, leads to the fact, that an insane amount of repeated information is poured into the people’s head every day. Thanks to repetition, a person seems to be programmed: he hears this or that message so often, be it a product promotion or political propaganda, that he considers his actions to be an act of goodwill. Thus, the “one-dimensional men” do not fully realize that they are far from democratic reality,” says Puustusmaa

The main producer Katerina Monastyrskaya told Estonian Film that at the moment the film is in the middle of post-production - colour-grading and sound design are already in process. “Shootings were very intense, due to the limited quantity of days and the main actors’ heavy schedules. But however, the whole material was shot, and in the planned period. We intend to have it com- pleted by the end of May,” says Monastyrskaya.

The cinematographer of One-dimensional Man is Mait Mäekivi. The main roles are played by Juhan Ulfsak, who recently starred in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, and Yang Ge, a Chinese actress, singer and blogger, who has been a part of the Gogol Center theater, founded by the famous Russian stage and film director Kirill Serebrennikov. Also Mait Malmsten is starring (Kalev, Stairway to Heaven, O2).

The production of One-dimensional Man has been supported by the Estonian Film Institute, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Public Broadcasting and Studio Locomotive from the Latvian side. EF