Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

Festival Director Tiina Lokk says, “We were quite confident to return with the First Features Competition after a successful inauguration last year with a lot of positive feedback from the industry, filmmakers and audience alike. All the films went on to other festivals and generated interest of the press, with Loev (India, dir Sudhanshu Saria) having been to nearly 50 festivals by now.
This year the festival continued the search for the birth of an artist with an original and strong vision and the ability to engage the audiences with universally graspable messages. We weren’t looking for flawless direction, rather a unique cinematographic vision, someone who makes you feel that you will definitely want to see her/his next film as well. What we have on our hands is an extremely satisfying mix of original stories presenting a wide range of genres, from very strong drama to sci-fi to crime thriller to, (my big surprise) action.”

The festival is starting the ticket sales for all the first features’ screenings on October 14, ahead of the rest of the programme.
 

Caina
Caina, Italy, 2016
Director-writer Stefano Amatucci ; producer-writer Davide Morganti
World premiere
The story about a morally dystopic Italy/Europe where bodies of dead refugees that the sea washes to the shore have become an industrial problem for the local authorities and a business for those responsible for the disposal of them. The titular character Caina, operating one such business, serving as a symbol of the decadent system, clashes with her new aide, a young muslim who conflicts her on the moral implications of their work. Having started as assistant director, a scriptwriter and a theatre screenwriter, Stefano Amatucci (co-scriptwriter and director) has managed to create a unique, passionate style of storytelling that has strong stylistic intersection with theatre.

Cockroach, The 
El Fumigador, Chile, 2016
Directors Francisco Hevia, Vinko Tomicic, producers Francisco Hevia, Vinko Tomicic, Renata Miranda, Matias Echeverria, Millaray Cortes 
International premiere
Living with his possessive mother and working as a fumigator in a small company, a team that is equally solidaristic and full of masculine testosterone, the thirty-something Guido, an introverted and physically puny man, moves along his life with seemingly apathetic passivity and humility. The unexpected beginning of a love affair brings a breath of fresh air but breaking free from the shackles of one’s previous life is task that demands a certain amount of inner strength. Does he possess it?
The directing duo Francisco Hevia and Vinko Tomicic who have demonstrated considerable skill in creating an increasingly gloomy and grotesque atmosphere are the winners of the Best Chilean Film award at Santiago International Film Festival.

Duet 
Duet, Iran, 2016
Director Navid Danesh, producer Ehsan Rasoulof
World premiere
Studying complex relationships of two couples whose past is intertwined via a difficult breakup by Sepideh and Hamed, both now involved with new partners, writer-director Navid Danesh demonstrates what kind of repercussions a brief reunion in bookshop can have after triggering painful memories.
Having studied in workshops of famed Iranians Abbas Kiarostami and Asghar Farhadi, Danesh uses various spaces such as offices, construction sites, shops homes, graveyards and nature effectively to add texture to the emotional burdens of his characters.

Gentle Breath 
Suave el aliento, Colombia, 2015
Director Augusto Sandino
International premiere
Director Augusto Sandino (the producer of four feature-length films premiered at festivals such as Berlinale, Bafici and Busan) has managed seemingly effortlessly to create a vibrant picture of a family living in Bogota, Colombia as stroll through life, without a strict structure for narrative. We are introduced to multiple generations with their aspirations, fights for freedom and recognition as well as their fears, anguishes and solitude, presented with a strong sense for the poetic, comedic and melancholic.

Holy Biker
Reza a Lenda, Brazil, 2016
Director Homero Olivetto, producers Kiki Lavigne, Karen Castanho
International premiere
Setting his environmentally conscious story of outlaws living in the Brazilian backlands suffering from desertification, Homero Olivetto creates a fascinating world where a messianic biker gang steals a holy statue from corrupt landowner and community boss.  It is a powerful boost of energy, stylistically drawing from a wide range of influences such 1960’s B-movies, Mad Max, Roberto Rodriguez, Jodorowsky’s El Topo etc but managing to create a unique and memorable whole by throwing religious symbolism and psychedelia into the mix as a fresh twist.

Home Is Here
Home Is here, Austria, 2016
Director Tereza Kotyk, producer Gabriele Kranzelbinder
World premiere
Having a background as an art curator, writer-director Tereza Kotyk demonstrates remarkable skill in using domestic and urban spaces and small details such as personal objects to study the mental states of her characters and the effects of intrusion into the lives of others. Hannah, daughter of immigrant in Vienna, discovers access to a posh private house and starts secretly visiting it, gradually starting to make barely noticeable re-arrangements in the possessions of its owner Max. We get two sides of the story that slowly start to merge - the curiosity of an adolescent girl trying to make an impact on a man who seems to have connected himself off of all the emotional things in life and who’s been using consumed objects and his social facade as a protective shield.

Man With the Binoculars
Antardrishti, India, 2016
Director Rima Das, producer Rima Das
International premiere
Writer-director Rima Das, born and raised in a small village in North-Eastern India, has been making short films and documentaries thus far. Her feature debut studies an elderly man living in a quiet village, who experiences a re-emergence of memories of his dead wife, after his visiting son has brought him a gift - a pair of binoculars, which he starts to use daily. The former geography teacher, now a collector of newspapers, spends his days contemplating over his relations with his daughters, daughters in-law, his sister and most of all - his past, that from time to time reminds him the love he lost and the dreams he did not chase.

Paris La Blanche
Paris La Blanche, France, 2016
Director Lidia Terki, producer Malek Hamzaoui
International, premiere
Rekia, aged 70, has decided to follow in his husband Nour’s trail to France, 40 years after his departure from Algeria. Moving from her quaint home village of Kabylie as a stranger to the metropole Paris, the woman has to surpass various physical, spatial and psychological obstacles to reach the goal - meeting the man whom she once loved and who has supported the family via cash checks sent by mail. Documentary film maker Lidia Terki proves in her debut feature a developed touch for moving stories and building an slow-burning, story that gradually gains emotional momentum as we find out more about the characters’ stories.

Red Captain, The
Červený kapitán, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, 2016 
Director Michal Kollár, producers Viktor Tauš, Michal Kollár, Agnieszka Kurzydło
International premiere
An established and internationally successful producer Michal Kollár (producer of features such as Red Spider and House) delivers a bold crime thriller with a cast of some of the top Slovakian, Czech and Polish actor, set during the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union in Prague 1992, where the Communist party still has legitimate power. After the finding of a mysterious dead body, Detective Richard Kraus discovers leads hinting to a political plot and a KGB network - something his conscious does not allow to look past.

Sofichka 
Софичка, Russia, 2016
Director Kira Kovalenka, producer Nikolay Yankin
World premiere
Following the life of Abhkasian woman Sofichka in two stages of her life, director and co-writer Kira Kovalenka offers us a powerful portrait of a woman in the whirlwind of time and historic epochs. The unique style of the film offers the viewers two perspectives defying the logic of time and space, with the woman, presented as two different identities from two periods of her life, watching and commenting over the other one, contemplating on the joys and miseries of her tumultuous life.

Traveller, The
Le Voyageur, Lebanon, France, 2016
Director Hadi Ghandour, producers Stevan Lee Mraovitch, Romain Richard
World premiere
After directing and producing “Americans”, a series of documentaries and short films about USA, writer-director Hadi Ghandour delivers a grown-up coming-of-age tale of Adnan, a happily married travel salesman in a remote Lebanese town who’s sent to a conference in Paris, France, ironically making this the first time for the man to the leave the country. Faced with the excitement of being in a new, more explicitly hedonistic culture, being attracted to his second cousin who’s grown up amongst the snobbish art world elite, Adnan begins questioning his former values and faces a severe identity crisis.

Wedding Dance
Kasap Havas, Turkey, 2016
Director Çiğdem Sezgin,producer Çiğdem Sezgin
International premiere
Coming from a successful career in television writer-director Çiğdem Sezgin studies gender roles, relationships and marriages in contemporary Turkey, where old traditions of family-arranged marriages clash with the drives of an individual’s seeking for freedom and love at the same time. Leyla , just out of relationship that ended on the rocks due to her pride and past the socially acceptable age for women to being single, is reminded painfully of the fact that men, though also bound by certain laws, have nevertheless more freedom in that society. But perhaps the next relationship with the fiery Ahmet, nearly 20 years younger than her, will prove different?

White King, The
The White King,  United Kingdom, 2016 
Directors Alex Helfrecht, Jörg Tittel, producers Alex Helfrecht, Jörg Tittel, Teun Hilte, Philip Munger
International premiere
Set in a dystopian dictatorship worshiping rurality, violence and hard labour, based on the acclaimed Hungarian novel The White King by György Dragomán, directors Alex Helfrecht and Jörg Tittel study the mechanisms of subjugation in totalitarian societies, while drawing eerie parallels to our present reality. Laden with roles from  Internationally accomplished actors like Jonathan Pryce, Agyness Deyn and Greta Scacchi, we are offered a compelling story of a family of dissidents, who operate on two interpretative levels - the struggle of individuals and the struggle of ideas and symbols.


Films in Main Competition programme will be announced on 18 October.

Full line-up of the festival will be unveiled on 4 November. 

20th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival takes place on 11-27 November.