The Estonian gathering will showcase ten new projects with Nordic involvement and host packed delegations of industry professionals from the region.
The 2024 edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is set to run from 8 to 24 November. The A-list gathering, established in 1997 and one of Northern Europe’s most important events of its kind, will be opened by the screening of David Dietl’s feel-good comedy Long Story Short (Feste & Freunde) (Germany), starring Laura Tonke and Ronald Zehrfeld in the leading roles.
Another comedy represents the Nordic countries in the international competition: writer-director Teemu Nikki’s 100 Litres of Gold (100 litraa sahtia), a co-production between Finland’s It’s Alive Films and Italy’s TCB – The Culture Business. Nikki, who scooped the Orizzonti Extra Audience Award with The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic(Sokea mies joka ei halunnut nähdä Titanicia) in Venice in 2021, gifts the audience with a screwball comedy centred on two middle-aged sisters, Taina and Pirkko, famous sahti-makers from Sysmä. Sahti is a strong beer made today the same way as 500 years ago. A third sister, Päivi, is getting married and asks her sisters if they can make 100 litres of sahti for the wedding. Unfortunately, it’s too good not to drink it. The sisters wake up horribly hungover and realise they have drunk it all. They have 24 hours to find 100 litres of good sahti, or they will lose all their respect.
The cast is led by Elina Knihtilä, Pirjo Lonka, and Ville Tiihonen, whilst Jarmo Kiuru served as the DoP and Marco Biscarini scored the pic. At the Estonian festival, 100 Litres of Gold will celebrate its international premiere after bowing at the Rome Film Festival in October.
Surprisingly, another Nordic title will open the Baltic Film Competition: the much-anticipated WWII drama Never Alone(Ei koskaan yksin) by Klaus Härö. A co-production between Finland, Estonia, Austria, Germany, and Sweden led by Ilkka Matila, the project was partly filmed in Estonia. Lensed by Robert Nordström, the film tells the lesser-known story of Abraham Stiller's struggle to protect Jews from deportation to the Nazis.
Meanwhile, ten new projects with Nordic involvement will be showcased in the different strands of the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, unspooling from 15 to 22 November.
On 20 November, during the festival’s first-ever TV Beats Screening Day, five fresh drama series will be presented. One of them comes from Finland and is titled Valhalla Project (Operaatio Valhalla). Directed and executively produced by Juha Wuoliojoki for Snapper Films, the 6x60 show promises to be “a gripping mystery-drama that weaves together corporate greed, Cold War politics, and the perilous pursuit of forbidden knowledge”. The plot follows climate scientist Alina Railo, who joins an expedition to Finnish Lapland seeking access to a parallel universe potentially holding solutions to the climate crisis. Her late father investigated the matter before vanishing decades ago.
Next, the TV Beats Co-Financing Market will showcase ten projects, including two Nordic ones. The first is Hörður Rúnarsson’s Norröna Murders (Iceland/Denmark), now in development. Adam, a socially anxious detective, is thrust into his first case - a double sexual ritual murder on board an isolated ferry. On board with a killer on the loose and a police jurisdictional battle, he helps an old secret lover accused of the crime, risking revealing his own life-changing secret.
The second is Saara Cantell and Anu Kuivalainen’s comedy-drama The Woman I Think About at Night (Finland), also in development. Produced by Liisa Karpo and Marianne Mäkelä, it follows a 40-year-old art teacher in crisis after a life change by one of her friends. The lead embarks on an adventure to find her own path in life, guided along the way by fascinating historical women.
Meanwhile, five projects with Nordic involvement will take part in the Baltic Event Co-Production Market. These include Arun Tamm’s thriller Container (an Estonian/Norwegian co-production led by Madis Tüür for Münchhausen Films and penned by veteran DoP Elen Lotman); Ivan Tymchenko’s animated war tale English Lessons (a co-production between Estonia, Ukraine, Sweden, and the Czech Republic, staged by Svitlana Soloviova); Heikki Kujanpää’s family-oriented fantasy Little Mr Sandman (Nukkumatti) (co-produced by Estonia, Sweden, and Finland and led by Tüür and Klaus Heydemann); Eva Cools’ psychological thriller Norden (a Belgian-Norwegian co-pro spearheaded by Maarten D'Hollander), and Anton Källrot’s “black comedy about shutting down the Internet” Push the Button (co-produced by Sweden and Norway, and led by Ylva Olaison).
Two more projects with Finnish involvement round off this year’s Nordic presence - Elin Grönblom’s Ella and Friends: Nature Calls (Ella ja kaverit menevät metsään) (Finland) and Risto Tuominen’s The Dark Architect (Pimeän arkkitehti) (Estonia/Finland).
The first, set to be introduced in the Works in Progress section, is a children’s comedy produced by Aleksi Hyvärinen and based on Timo Parvela’s book series of the same name. In the film, second-grader Ella and her classmates race to stop a greedy businessman from destroying their forest, home to adorable otters, while scrambling to finish a school project that could hold them back a grade.
The second, included in the European Genre Forum sidebar and staged by Ilkka Matila, is a horror flick revolving around a young student who moves into a decaying apartment building and is given a gruesome task by its residents.
Among the conferences and talks programmed by the festival, it is worthwhile mentioning the “Film for the Future: Exploring Sustainable Filmmaking Practices in Sweden and the Baltic States” session and the open lecture by Lollo Urbansdotter, founder and owner of Magnolia Agency, who will share “valuable insights on navigating the dynamic film industry, supporting talent, and the keys to building enduring, successful partnerships with both clients and collaborators”.
Other events featuring Nordic topics and speakers include the “Transforming Spaces and Lives” session led by Swedish therapist Robert Bohman, who will address substance abuse issues in the film industry; the “Brutally Honest Case Study” on the second season of the Icelandic show Black Sands (Svörtu sandar); a panel exploring international co-production opportunities between Estonia and Iceland; and the “Near Future Retreat” event, courtesy of New Nordic Narratives and billed as “a unique think tank” designed to offer “a safe space to listen to a growing number of creatives as they voice and share the most urgent needs and wants for the future of our film and TV communities”.