Aleksandrs Okonovs

In a poor Estonian village, a group of peasants use magic and folk remedies to survive the winter, and a young woman tries to get a young man to love her.

Twelve uncomfortable, deeply personal and painful stories by women who have had an abortion are read, told and 'experienced' by six male actors. Does that make a difference? Will the society listen now?

“TESA MAN” is a music film – a poetic exploration of the relationship between collective creativity and the natural world. The film blurs the lines between reality and imagination, inviting viewers into an animistic experience where music performed by the band Tesa in a frozen Baltic landscape attempts to transform air, steam, ash and clay into something much more alive.

An observational reflection on the body and existing in one’s social as well as physical “skin”. “To break out of their traumas and the ingrained ideas of normality and the fictional ideal of femininity, and to make their bodies truly their own – this is the goal of two young women who use their bodies as a tool of protest and a work of art,” writes the filmmaker.

The concert film includes 12 songs from all three of the band's albums, performed by Sudden Lights at their most ambitious open-air show to date at the Mežaparks Green Theater. In parallel with the concert songs, the band members reveal themselves in very personal, documentary-style sketches, where the line between reality and fiction disappears, thus giving viewers a glimpse into the souls of the band members.

An experimental video concert using split-screen technology – a new audiovisual work by Gundega Šmite and director Aleksandr Okonov. Subtle modernism in music, Latvian folk song lyrics, the classical-ethnic music of the Arcandela ensemble, and collage-style video direction, with material filmed during the concert recording with 17 video cameras, creating the impression of a live performance.