That's How It Is

June 14, 1941, 3 a.m. Over 40000 people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are deported by Soviets to Siberia. Among them is a philosophy student Erna, a happily married mother of a little girl. Separated from her husband, Erna and her daughter are dispatched together with other women and children to remote Siberian territories. Despite hunger, fear and brutal humiliation Erna never in next fifteen years loses her sense of freedom and hope of returning to homeland.

After a heavy decision, Anna and Juhan are unable to move on with their lives. They take time off at their friends' fancy summer house and once there, are forced to offer shelter to another couple caught in the storm. The couple assumes that the house belongs to Anna and Juhan and they do nothing to correct the mistake. Instead, they seize their new roles and start taking their mutual bitterness out on the strangers.

After ten years of war, plague and famine, the land is swept clean of people. The few remaining souls are scattered about, living in misery and lacking hope. An anxious silence hangs over the land. On one particularly starry night, two peasants find a stranger on the seashore.

Olga, a lonely parking lot guard, sweeps up the snow, that won't cease falling, and waits for her daughter, who keeps her car there. Little by little, the snowdrifts grow above Olga's head. When a twist of fate stops her from meeting her daughter again, all she can do is to see hope where it almost never was before.

The film consists of three chapters. The Manslayer takes place more than a hundred years ago. The leading character Maara is a young bride who is about to start her life in her new family. The Virgin, set in the spring of 1949, tells the story of a young woman called Elina, who has been deported from Ingria into Estonia during the previous war. The Shadow moves in the present, on the border of real life and fantasy. The main character, Luna Lee, has decided to flee from home. Is there anything besides emptiness somewhere? The film is led by the singularity of the leading character - Maara, Elina and Luna Lee are all played by the same actress.

People wander around looking for their lives that will always remain unattainable. This film is about Marju Lepajõe, who was a classical philologist, a religious historian and a lecturer at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Tartu. With a witty charm, Marju reflects on the modern world, where the need and the ability to deal with a subject matter in depth have become insignificant. Even universities, temples of erudition and culture, are losing their intellectual aspect. Where can a scholar find their place in these unfavourable circumstances? The viewers get a chance to follow Marju on her path towards refined wording and personal truth. This is an encounter that broadens the mind, offers comfort and inspires