Section: Close Up: Estonia

ONE-DIMENSIONAL MAN

ONE-DIMENSIONAL MAN

Andres Puustusmaa
EE, 2025, 103 Min

Even intelligence officers age. Raul's father, Viktor, harassed his son with strict discipline and talk of communism during Soviet times; no doubt he did the same to his interrogation victims as well. Now he's in a nursing home, and has to have his fingernails cut. A stocktaking.

#drama #rawemotions #post-socialism
FFC(C)

Performance

2025-11-05 | 16:45
Kammerbühne
2025-11-07 | 21:00
Obenkino

Viktor worked as a high-ranking officer for the KGB whilst Estonia was part of the Soviet Union. His zeal for service knew no bounds, not even those of his own family; his wife’s bourgeois lifestyle was a thorn in his side. A wife and mother, she disappeared at some point – taken away. Between the drama and everyday observations, a family's fate is sketched out through leaps in time: here the old man of today, there the state terrorist of yesterday. What is the point of what one has done in life? What purpose has it all served, especially if that purpose no longer exists? What is the value, today, of the suffering caused back then? Who remembers what, and why, and why are others no longer able to remember everything? And how is the next generation to deal with all of this?

Director Andres Puustusmaa emphasises the timeless character of his protagonist, one who reduces social complexity to a level he finds tolerable: 

"Some members of the society accept life in a one-dimensional reality of which it is almost impossible to get out. In the information age, this is due to the fact that a person cannot cope with the amount and quality of information poured in. (…) There is no choice, only the illusion of choice".

Text: Bernd Buder

 

Wed 05.11. I 16:45 I KAMMERBÜHNE I original version with English subtitles + simultaneous German translation

Fri 07.11. I 21:00 I OBENKINO I original version with English subtitles

Drehbuch
Andres Puustusmaa
Kamera
Mait Mäekivi
Schnitt
Mihhail Tkats
Darsteller
Yuliya Aug, Yang Ge, Mait Malmsten, Juhan Ulfsak
Produzent
Katerina Monastyrskaya
Produktion
Leo Films
Andres Puustusmaa

Andres Puustusmaa - Andres Puustusmaa is Estonian director and former actor. In 1994 he graduated from The Drama School of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and started working in  Estonian Drama Theatre. Since 2004 he has worked as a director on feature films in Estonia.

Movies
• Your Honor!/Kohtunik- Feature 2019
• Rohelised kassid/Green cats- Feature 2017
• Rõtiloks/Rat Trap- Feature 2011
• Punane elavhõbe/Red Mercury -Feature 2010
• Красный жемчуг любви/Red pearl of love-Feature 2008
• 18-14- Feature 2007