Tales of trauma, pain, memory and vanishing animate an instructive and illuminating Tallinn Black Nights, a ray of light amid bleak November.
Bruising and Vanishing
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
A world-leading first feature competition and an array of excellent sidebars, from the wonderful, oftentimes freezing nation of Estonia.
18 Holes to Paradise Keeps Things Under Par
The absurdities of the privileged in the face of incoming disaster is smartly dissected in João Nuno Pinto’s Tallinn entry 18 Holes to Paradise.
The Pupil Hauntingly Depicts Grooming Hidden in Plain Sight
At a time when “groomer” is used as a political smear, The Pupil shows us the truly sickening impact the reality can have on young boys and girls.
Peeping Trojans, Slivering Sofas
A sleek German answer to Philip Noyce’s Sliver, Interior uses a sexual taboo to interrogate a world where all we do is watch — and rarely intervene.
The Boy with Pink Pants. Pain Without the Exploitation.
Pink clothes become a metaphor for difference in Margherita Ferri’s nuanced The Boy with Pink Pants, based on a devastating true story.
Some Nights I Feel Like Walking Refreshingly Tackles the Realities of Urban Queer Life
Some Nights I Feel Like Walking doesn’t buy into the glittery tropes of recent queer cinema — instead diving into the harsh realities of gay life.
No Dogs Allowed. Navigating Shaky Ground.
Despite its technical accomplishments, Steve Bache’s No Dogs Allowed unfortunately replicates many of the same things it seeks to criticise.
Poetry and Parenting: Two Lithuanian Films at the Tallinn Film Festival 2022
France to the west, Russia to the east; Lithuania trying to do its thing in the middle. A survey of two Baltic premieres at the Tallinn Film Festival.
Death and Divorce: Two First Features from Tallinn Film Festival 2022
A couple of excellent first features from the Tallinn Film Festival show both physical and mental pain, and the different ways to reconcile the two.