‘Truth and Justice’ shortlisted for best international feature Oscar

ERR News, December 2019

Based on the novel of the same name by Anton Hansen Tammsaare, Estonian movie “Truth and Justice” has been shortlisted for the International Feature Film category at the 92nd Academy Awards, ERR’s Menu portal reports.

The movie was released early this year and took around 18 months to film, with a budget of €2.5 million.

Filming locations included constructing a set of several 19th-century style Estonian houses, in the village of Vastse-Roosa on the border with Latvia, as well as several other sites, including the Open Air Museum (Eesti Vabaõhumuuseum) in Tallinn, and actors’ clothes were aged in line with the time lapse of the story (over 20 years).

“Truth and Justice” had its cinematic release earlier this year and will premiere on ETV on January 1, 2020.

The final shortlist of Oscar foreign-language nominees will be made in early 2020.

Previous Estonian movies to have been nominated for Oscar selection include Estonian- Georgian co-production “Tangerines” (2014), which made it to the top five for the 2015 Oscars, and “The Fencer” (2015), which was shortlisted the following year.

Tammsaare’s “Truth and Justice” pentalogy was published from 1926-1933.

Location filming on ‘Truth and Justice’.

Author: Dmitri Kotjuh / Jarva Teataja / Scanpix