Home of Estonian Film

Arkaader is the Estonian VOD platform for Estonian film, launched in 2022. It aims to bring all the Estonian film heritage together under one roof, making it easily accessible – feature films, documentaries, animation, film chronicles – and add temporal and geographical dimensions to the search engine.

By Mikk Rand

Arkaader is created by the Estonian National Archive and Estonian Film Institute. Arkaader has a constantly updated and expanded film library, curated compilations, and the so-called film map that allows the movies to be searched by geographical locations in Estonia.

The main role of Arkaader is to extensively prolong the life cycle of any given Estonian film after its theatrical run. Arkaader provides an answer to a popular question that has plagued Estonian film fans for a long time: Where can I see THIS film? It guarantees great accessibility to all films, regardless of anyone’s location in Estonia.

Currently, almost 3000 titles are available online, a bit less than a hundred of those are features, 150 animated films, over 250 docs, and the rest of the catalogue is comprised of chronicle films from different periods of time. More than 1200 chronicle pieces can be located on the map, and more than 30 curated collections are on offer as well. New content is constantly being added, as work on the Estonian film library continues. In the current phase of development of Arkaader, we set our focus on the needs of schools; in 2023, the new virtual classroom will be opened to complement the official school curriculum, adding a variety of educational materials about films and cinema. The map function allows to create additional educational opportunities for historians. By the end of 2023, the English version of Arkaader will also be launched, to quench the international thirst for Estonian cinema classics, but English subtitles of many presented films are available even now.

What does the name Arkaader mean? It’s a playful composite of two Estonian words – Arhiiv (archive) and Kaader (frame). One important principle in Arkaader’s ideology and everyday work of compiling and presenting film material is that the selection does not rotate but expands. All that is uploaded, is there to remain, with new things added all the time. Newer titles are added after the necessary agreements with the rights holders, older ones after they have been digitally restored.

Arkaader can be used to watch a single short or full-length film, live action, or animation, real or fictional, free or for a ticket price, depending on the wishes and possibilities. There is also a monthly subscription that guarantees immediate access to the whole library, without any additional fees. Besides the single films on the shelf, curated collections are also offered as film screenings. In addition to feature films, animated films, and documentaries, these thematic collections offer a wide selection of newsreels, ads, amateur films, music videos, live re - cordings, theatre plays, and television production. The collections are tied together by a common theme (or a personality, an event, an author, an era, a place, etc.) and they allow us to see single films in a new and exciting context that has value of its own.

History buffs can search the film map for audio-visual material that has been shot in a certain location, perhaps near a childhood home, or place of origin, and witness the flow of time with the help of moving pictures.

A large amount of material presented on Arkaader can be accessed all around the globe, but there are also titles that have some geo-block restriction on them.

Arkaader is meant for everyone who is interested in Estonian film, but also students, teachers, and fans of global and local history. EF