Estcube-2.X: Ten Years to the Stars

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 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 story of two lovers growing apart and drifting into their isolated realms. Like stars in space, Vera and her astronaut husband Aleksei drift further apart with every unspoken word between them. When the truth finally comes out, a painful void has already taken over their formerly close relationship.

The documentary “Brotherhood of Lions” is a story about the legendary football club Lions. Lions were created in 1978 under the leadership of Roman Ubakivi who wanted to start training Estonian boys when the general sports circles did not think the world’s most popular game was suitable for Estonians. The tremendous training volumes, successful trips to competitions in the Soviet Russia, tales of happenings and work ethics that are absurd from today’s point of view all paint a colourful, warm and inspiring story of young men, their charismatic coach and everybody else who took part in their journey. Promoted by the media, those young boys became national heroes at the end of the 1980s and, in the winds of freedom, people started to see them as the Estonian football team. Unknowingly, the Lions were thus like the ambassadors of freedom, and even more so – the foundations of football in the newly independent Estonia.

A film about one of the best football players of all time in Estonia. The story of a Russian boy living in Maardu becoming an Estonian hero. Still, Vassiliev's career, known as the maestro, did not go unhindered. Like a philosopher, he was able to understand both the highs and the lows of his career.

Hardi Volmer's self-portrait to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the colorful cineast's work in the film industry. Apparently there is no other Estonian cultural figure whose life and creative process have been so thoroughly documented on film for decades.