Maria Avdjuško

Fleeing from the Russian secret police, a young Estonian fencer is forced to return to his homeland, where he becomes a physical education teacher at a local school. The past however catches up and puts him in front of a difficult choice.

Aliide experienced The Great Terror under Stalin’s regime, and decades after her hometown people were deported to Siberia, she lives alone in an isolated house. One night, she finds a young woman in her yard – Zara has just escaped from the claws of the Russian mafia that held her as a sex slave. Survivors both, Aliide and Zara engage in unearthing each other’s motives and gradually their stories merge into one, revealing the tragedy of a family during the cruelest years in Estonian history.

The events of the war in 1944, from the Blue Hills to Sõrve Peninsula. Shown through the eyes of Estonian soldiers who had to pick sides and fight against fellow brothers. Choices have to be made, not only by the soldiers, but also by their loved ones.

After surviving a deadly attack, a guard on the Soviet-Chinese border decides to become a monk but must continually prove along the way that he's capable of becoming the enlightened man he set out to be.

Aarno Lamminparras hijacked an airplane with a gun in 1978. A true story.

In the midst of Stalinist tyranny, six-year-old Leelo's mother is sent to a prison camp. Haunted by her mother's last words telling her to be a good kid, Leelo vows to be on her best behaviour in the confusing grown-up world in the hope that it will bring her mother back.

Mati is an assistant in TV studio. Patiently he has waited for his time to become a TV star but seems that he has to wait forever. One day an alien called Tipp is sent on Earth (by its chief Tapp) to find out the purpose of Estonian children's TV show "Tipp and Tapp". Tipp nestles himself inside Mati's brains that leads the man to unpredictable actions.

Candles in the Dark is the story of a girl who comes to visit her father's homeland, the Soviet Republic of Estonia. After she arrives, she finds that her father is part of the dissident anti-soviet underground. She soon find her self engulfed in the struggle with her father and a lot of new friends, and finds herself being hunted by the KGB.

One of the most extraordinary personas in Estonian cultural history is undoubtedly the writer, director, publicist, lecturer and a public figure Mati Unt. The Documentary Unt’s Hour takes us back to the bright generation of the ‘60s with their innovative and creative ideas in the literary world and the theatre. The film depicts Mati Unt as a charismatic persona, a phenomenal thinker and an anarchist who used cinematic tools to reinvent old forms. The film includes never before seen footage of Mati during his creative process and among his friends. The story centers on different groups of friends that formed over the years which provide the basis for the selection of characters. The Salon of Mati’s best friend Vaino Vahing in Tartu which brought together writers, scientists, and theatre pioneers; and the literary salon at Vilde tee in Tallinn in the home of Mati Unt and Kersti Kreismann at the beginning of Mati’s career as a director in the Youth Theatre in Tallinn.

After 27-year-old Karmen's father dies, the security structures of her previous life start falling apart, as her relationship with her half-brother Viktor also deteriorates, and she faces the darkness and emptiness of the universe.

Maria Avdjushko’s documentary Good People offers a heartfelt look into the work of the Hille Tänavsuu Cancer Treatment Foundation “The Gift of Life” – and the people it helps. In a world where terminal diagnoses often come with no options, this film introduces us to patients who refuse to give up, their loved ones, and the dedicated volunteers and donors who make life-saving treatments possible. Through honest and emotional testimonies, we see the very real impact of hope, community, and care. Over ten years, the foundation has become an essential part of Estonia’s healthcare landscape. Good People is a tribute to those who help others carry on – a moving story about resilience, compassion, and the value of every single day.

A confrontation of two worlds-- Two rooms, one of which is full of light and colors, the other a monotonous gray.

The film based on Eno Raua's stories "Päris kriminnene lugu" and "Telepathic lugu" takes the viewer to a summer town in Estonia, where boys and girls meet with exciting adventures, dreams and falling in love. There are no real forensics and telepathy here, but it is about the disappearance and finding of a little boy. In addition to adventures, the main characters find something else - both in life and in themselves.

A former goldminer who has run afoul of the law is made an unusual offer by the mafia. The power of money and popularity among women won't let him step down from the rollercoaster in order to make the right decisions.

“Landscape with Many Moons“ is a drama about a middle-aged man who lives a seemingly ordinary life with his wife and children. The truth is, however, that their relationship has reached a dead end but they prefer the illusory decorations of living together to the free fall into emptiness. The man gallivants around between his previous and current relationships without knowing exactly what to do with them. Living on the edge starts to overburden his nervous system and as a result, actual reality and dream-like reality blend together and it becomes ever harder to distinguish between what is real and what is not.

On one summer evening, four strangers are brought together by a mysterious murder. A case which at first seems like a regular crime investigation turns out to be something more - a tale of love, alienation and new hope.

A young man is taken to a small town hospital after a suicide attempt. Rita is a beautiful married Russian nurse taking care of him.

A lot has happened in a quarter of a century, but the Salmons have remained who they were - Estonia's first family, who have been viewed with both admiration and quiet envy. Viewers of the former series remember how well the Salmon family was able to make money. Now they have secured an even more powerful position in the society, because Ella Salmon has become the President of Estonia.

Andres is a sensitive teenager raised by his strict grandparents in a small bland Soviet Estonian town. He is being bullied at school and his only friends are the drunkards, whores, and thieves living next door.

"A Bad Scene" is a film compilation, which speaks about the darker currents hiding in human relationships, situations, which are practically inescapable, in five different ways. The fourth short film, “Bewitched”, directed by Maria Avdjushko, talks about middle-aged Rainar, who discovers on a family outing that they have left behind their food. Wandering in the forest, he stumbles upon mysterious Liina, who slowly bewitches him.

The Soviet Union teeters on the verge of collapse in 1990 and tiny Baltic nations struggle to take back their independence. A rising tide of public opinion opposes the Estonian national team's participation in the USSR's basketball championship. The team makes the unpopular choice to participate.

The mystical and thrilling drama asks what sort of reality can give our life meaning. The film tells the story of Pia (38), an ophthalmologist, whose marriage has recently ended because she was not able to have children. As she strives to move forward with her life, Pia learns the unknown but also finds her inner strength. Unexpectedly, her deepest wish to become a mother materializes, but not quite in the way she imagined it.

Rainy summer evening... Young people are arriving at the new trendy club named Phobos which is still under construction. Or re-construction - since it's a former bomb shelter which is reconstructed to become a club. At first, the party sees nothing wrong, but soon the bunker doors turn out to be locked, and the teenagers get trapped underground without light and communication. At first, all of them are joking and do not realize how dangerous their situation is. Then they get frightened. All of them will need to cope with their fears before the bunker will let them free.