Satan Came to Earth The

Johannes Lõhmus writes about The Misadventures of the New Satan, a film where metaphysics and Estonian literary classics meet.

By Johannes Lõhmus Photos by Estonian Film Institute & Film Archive of the National Archives of Estonia

The Satan usually spends his time collecting the souls of the dead in Heaven, but suddenly everything changes for him. As he knocks on the gates of Heaven, it turns out that God has started to doubt humanity’s ability to become blessed, which endangers the previous agreements between Heaven and Hell, thus God may no longer send the souls of the sinful down to the Satan in Hell. The only way to maintain the status quo is for the Satan, himself, to go to earth as a human to prove that one can become blessed through work. This is the prologue for the film The Misadventures of the New Satan, co-directed by Jüri Müür and Grigori Kromanov, where Elmar Salulaht plays the scruffy-headed hulk of a Satan-Jürka who takes on the challenge of trying to become blessed among the humans, even when the Almighty, Himself, has personally cast doubt on the idea. The film was made in 1964 in Soviet Estonia where “the figure of the

Satan was one that generates fear in ideology. If there is no God, then there should also be no Satan, but suddenly the Satan appears in Estonia,” said the Estonian SSR Cinematography Committee Chairman Feliks Liivik when looking back on the era in 1990s independent Estonia.1 Indeed, the film’s release at the time was surprising since the period of 1959 to 1964 saw an active anti-religious campaign in the Soviet Union.

But by some miracle, this film with a deeply religious and philosophical subtext was shown all over the Soviet Union and became the first significant success in Estonian film history. The reason is probably the gravity of the original material, and the policy adopted at the Tallinnfilm Studio to bring more national literary adaptations to the screen, which, of course, does not guarantee the success of a film in and of itself.

The Misadventures Of The New Satan

Premiered on June 15, 1964 in Tallinn

Length 95 minutes, black and white

Production company: Tallinnfilm. Filmed at the Tallinnfilm and Lenfilm pavilions and the Moscow Popular Science Film Central Studio zoological base; outdoor locations in different parts of Estonia.

Directors: Jüri Müür and Grigori Kromanov; director of photography: Jüri Garshnek; production designer: Rein Raamat; scriptwriters: Jüri Müür and Gennadi Koleda; composer: Eino Tamberg; managing director: Veronika Bobossova. Cast: Elmar Salulaht, Ants Eskola, Astrid Lepa, Leida Rammo, Heino Mandri, Eili Sild, Jüri Järvet, Kaarel Karm and others.

First Tallinnfilm film to win the Grand Prix - Big Amber of the Film Festival of Baltic States, Belorussia and Moldavia (USSR).