All the stops were pulled out by founder-director Tiina Lokk for the anniversary celebration of the 10th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
(1-10 December 2006),
aka “PÖFF” in Estonian. Indeed, no festival site in the Baltic States can match the charm of the “old town” atmosphere of this Estonian capital – particularly during the “black nights,” when the gigantic Christmas tree on the square before city hall has to be seen to be fully appreciated. “Back in 1997, when we organized the first feature film festival in Estonian history, there were 28 films from eight countries on the program. We had 19 foreign guests and a total attendance of 5,000,” reminisced Tiina Lokk. “Today, the 10th Black Nights Film Festival, together with its sub festivals, is presenting around 500 films from more than 60 countries, and attendance has increased more than tenfold.” A primary reason for the success of the festival is the support of some 70 sponsors and partners. Another is the subtitling skills of the festival team, a task that embraced projections in ten scattered venues. Last, but not least, the festival’s 298-page catalogue, a veritable collector’s item, is a treasure trove of accurate information in Estonian and English for the dedicated cineaste.

PÖFF 2006 summoned six juries to hand out awards and prize money. In addition to the flagship International Jury, others numbered the Estonian Competition Jury, the Netpac Jury (Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema), the FICC Jury (International Federation of Film Clubs), the Sleepwalkers Jury (Student Films Competition), the Just Film Jury (Children and Youth Film Competition), and the Animated Dreams Jury (Animation Films Competition). To accommodate enthusiastic audiences, both Animated Dreams and Sleepwalkers Festival had to be scheduled as independent events just prior to PÖFF, the former running from November 23 to 26, the latter from November 24 to 30. Furthermore, Black Nights has also helped the city of Haapsalu to launch a Horror Film Festival, nicknamed “HÖFF,” and organizes an open-air film festival in the city of Tartu, tagged “tARTuff – Love Is a Many Splendored Thing.”

PÖFF is far more than just film screenings. For the fifth year, Tiina Lokk has been organizing the Baltic Event, a program of new films from the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) together with previews of coming attractions for visiting buyers and festival directors. A photography exhibit in the Radisson SAS Hotel Lounge titled “Back to the Future” featured the work of two contemporary photographers, Indrek Aruna and Filippo Caroti, in which fashion models in glamorous outfits are lensed against the backdrop of Soviet-era buildings. “Jazzkaar” presented a three-day concert with local musicians to honor French composer Michel Legrand, each evening ending with a screening of Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (France, 1964). A retrospective of Russian classics, drew crowds to discuss the input of Baltic actors and filmmakers in such classics as Grigory Kozintsev’s King Lear (USSR, 1969), featuring the Boris Pasternak translation of the Shakespearean tragedy and the stunning black-and-white cinematography of Lithuanian cameraman Jonas Gricius. And the “Culturegate” sidebar of 22 films was accompanied by a roundtable conference on the theme of cultural identity in European cinema, the focus of course being on filmlands in the ever-expanding European Union. The conference was held in the brand new Kumu Kunstimuseum, the state art museum with a remarkable collection of Estonian paintings.

The festival opened with James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty’s Laulev revolutsioon (Singing Revolution) (Estonia), a documentary on the non-violent resistance path chosen by Estonians to win the country’s independence from the Soviet Union. This, in contrast to the bloodshed of innocent people in neighboring Latvia and Lithuania in the early 1990s. It closed with Aki Kaurismäki’s Laitakaupungin valot (Lights in the Dusk) (Finland, 2006), the last in the director’s trilogy on losers in Finnish society that began with Kauas pilvet karkaavat (Drifting Clouds) (1996) and continued with Mies vailla menneisyyttä (The Man Without a Past) (2002). Aki Kaurismäki, who had attended the first Black Night Film Festival back in 1997, was honored with the festival’s Life Achievement Award.

Sidebar programs at BNFF 2006 highlighted the best of world cinema. Eastern Sunrise focused on Asian cinema. Selected Titles included Corneliu Poromboiu’s A fost saun n-a fost? (12:08 East of Bucharest) (Romania) and Ivan Voropayev’s Eyforiya (Euphoria) (Russia), two of the most provocative films to emerge from Eastern Europe. Tsai Ming-Liang’s Hei yan quan (I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone) (Taiwan/France/Austria) and Woody Allen’s Scoop (USA) could be seen in the Panorama. Two critically praised German films, Matthias Glasner’s Der freie Wille (The Free Will) and Matthias Luthardt’s Pingpong, were booked for the Forum sidebar. Latin American productions were featured in the Other America program, new Scandinavian films could be seen in Nordic Lights, and gay and lesbian films were listed under Different Frequencies. British director Neil Jordan was honored with a retrospective tribute. Other retros included Focus on Italy, Modern Warfare in Films, The Eyes of Buddha, and Closed Societies.

Daniel Sánchez Arevalo’s debut feature film AzulOscuroCasiNegro (DarkBlueAlmostBlack) (Spain) was awarded the festival’s top award by the international jury. A low-key potpourri of loosely connected stories, DarkBlueAlmostBlack charms with its unexpected twists, stifled emotions, and offbeat humor. Nothing really happens in the film, save that one can easily identify with the troubles of an ordinary guy who cares for his invalid father to the point of taking over his job as a janitor, then is beset upon by his jailbird brother for romantic favors, while he himself is trying to sort out his own relationship with a girlfriend who has just returned from studies abroad. The Best Director Award went to Nuri Bilge Ceylan for Iklimler (Climates) (Turkey/France), the poetic portrayal of a marriage slowly disintegrating. Ceylan himself interprets the role of the estranged husband, an architect and photographer plagued by uncertainty, despair, and loneliness.

The award for Best Estonian Film went to Veiko Õunpuu’s Tühirand (Empty), a minimalist tale about a frustrated young intellectual who tries to win back the love of his ex-wife while visiting her and her lover at a summer retreat. A debut feature, Veiko Õunpuu enhances its metaphorical depth by shooting against a backdrop of natural beauty – an empty beach and the majesty of the woods. A Special Mention was given to Raimo Jõerand’s Sinimäed (The Blue Hills), a documentary about one of the decisive battles of the Second World War that took place in the summer of 1944 and involved Estonians, Germans, and Russians.

Another anniversary was celebrated in Tallinn. Fifty years ago, the Nukufilm Studio was founded in Tallinn as a puppet film studio by Elbert Tuganov (born 1920). Tuganov, who directed the first Estonian animation film, Peetrikese unenägu (Little Peter’s Dream) (USSR/Estonian Republic, 1958), went on to direct 37 animated films, many invited to international festivals and remarkable for sometimes pulling the wool over the eyes of Soviet censors in Moscow. Far from being just “children’s films,” the puppet and animation films that poured out of the Nukufilm Studio spoke directly to the cultural heritage of the Estonian people. A full Nukufilm account can be found in Between Genius & Utter Illiteracy: A Story of Estonian Animation by Canadian author Chris J. Robinson, editor of ASIFA magazine and artistic director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival. But here it should be noted that among the artists whom Elbert Tuganov had gathered around him at Nukufilm was Arvo Pärt, at that time in the 1960s a relatively unknown Estonian composer – today Pärt ranks as one of Europe’s leading modern music composers.

For those not familiar with the masterpieces that have emerged from Nukufilm over the years, the studio has recently released a DVD for its 50th anniversary. Besides the showreel plugging the highlights of the past, the DVD contains some of studio’s past and recent successes: Heino Pars’s Nail (1972), Riho Unt and Hardi Volmer’s The Enchanted Island (1986), Mait Laas’s Way to Nirvana (2000), Heiki Ermits’s Instinct (2003), Pärtel Tall’s Carrot (2003), Priit Tender’s Miriam Plays Hide and Seek (2004), and Riho Unt’s Brothers Bearhearts (2005). These, and other Nukufilm cartoons, could be seen at BNFF in the sidebar Estonian Animation Films for Children.
Indeed, the 10th Black Nights Film Festival was one for the books. Other festivals in the emerging states of the European Union should have it so good!

Awards

Official Competition EurAsia Awards
Grand Prix, Best Eurasian Film
AzulOscuroCasiNegro (DarkBlueAlmostBlack) (Spain), dir Daniel Sánchez
Arevalo
Best Director
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Iklimler (Climates) (Turkey/France)
Best Actor
Samuli Edelmann, Riisuttu mies (Man Exposed) (Finland), dir Aku Louhimies
Best Actress
Sandra Hüller, Requiem (Germany), dir Hans-Christian Schmid
Special Jury Prize
As esi tu (You Am I) (Lithuania/Germany), dir Kristijonas Vildziunas,
Special Mentions
Z odzysku (Retrieval) (Poland), dir Slawomir Fabicki
Kan shang qu hen mei (Little Red Flowers) (China), dir Zhang Yuan

Estonian Feature Film Competition Awards
Scottish Leader Estonian Film Award
Tühirand (Empty), dir Veiko Õunpuu
Special Mention
Sinimäed (The Blue Hills), dir Raimo Jõerand
FICC Award – International Federation of Film Clubs
Don Quijote Award
Sønner (Sons) (Norway), dir Erik Richter Strand
Special Mentions
AzulOscuroCasiNegro (DarkBlueAlmostBlack) (Spain), dir Daniel Sánchez
Arevalo
Iklimler (Climates) (Turkey/France), dir Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Netpac Award – Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema
Kargaran mashghoule karand (Men At Work) (Iran), dir Mani Haghighi
Estonian Film Critics Award
Taxidermia (Hungary/Austria/France), dir György Palfi
Postimees Newspaper Award
Kan shang qu hen mei (Little Red Flowers) (China), dir Zhang Yuan
Audience Award
Elsa & Fred (Spain), dir Marcos Carnevale

Life Achievement Award
Aki Kaurismäki, Finland

Animated Dreams Awards – Animation Film Festival
Grand Prix, Wooden Wolf Award
Der Kloane (The Runt) (Germany), dir Andreas Hykade
Best Story
Aldrig som första gangen! (Never Like the First Time!) (Sweden), dir Jonas Odell
Best Design
Rabbit (UK), dir Run Wrake
Special Mentions
Historia tragica com final feliz (Tragic Story With a Happy Ending) (Portugal/France/Canada), dir Regina Pessoa
Hlineni holub (Clay Pigeon) (Czech Republic), dir Milos Tomic
ANOBA Award for Best Baltic and Nordic Animation Film
Ilo Irti (The Irresistible Smile) (Finalnd), dir Ami Lindholm
ANOBA nomination for Best Baltic and Nordic Animation Film
Une Instituut (The Institute of the Dream) (Estonia), dir Mati Kütt

Sleepwalkers Awards – Student Film Festival
Grand Prix, Best Film
Kotivideo (Homevideo) (Finland), dir Mikko Kuparinen
Best Fiction Film
Miasto ucieczki (The Refugee City) (Poland), dir Wojciech Kasperski
Best Documentary
Viimnepäev (Final Days) (Estonia), dir Kullar Viimne
Best Animation
Adjustment (UK), dir Ian Mackinnon
Special Mentions
Isola (Norway), dir Andreas J. Riiser
Mother (UK), dir Christoph Steger
Best Estonian Short
Suvine Dokumentaal (The Summer Documentary), dir Joosep Matjus

“Just Film” Awards – Children and Youth Film Festival
Children's Award
Drømmen (We Shall Overcome) (Denmark), dir Niels Arden Oplev
Special Mention
Opal Dream (UK/Australia), dir Peter Cattaneo
Youth Award
Die Wolke (The Cloud) (Germany), dir Gregor Schnitzler
Special Mention
7 Virgenes (7 Virgins) (Spain), dir Alberto Rodriguez
Audience Award – Favorite Character
Ahmed (acted by Mehran Iqbal) in Tommys Inferno (Tommy’s Inferno) (Norway), dir Ove Raymond Gyldenas