Living Images

Living Images

2013 · 135 min · ★ 7.4 · Comedy, Drama, Romance, War

The main character, Helmi, is born into the house of Baron von Strandmann in Old-Town Tallinn, in 1908. The only thing that she knows for sure about her past is that her mother was an Estonian servant girl. Everything else is a discovery during a life that runs the course of a century - a life that has quite a lot of surprises in store for Helmi. In this house she finds happiness and suffering, passion and disappointment. She grows up alongside young Erik and waits for her big love to blossom. But one floor down lives projectionist Julius - a man who is far from indifferent when it comes to Helmi. All of the biggest historical events of the century leave their mark on the house. Its hardwood floors have born soldiers' gruff boots and gentleman's shiny oxfords. Its walls have held the fates of people from far and near, foreigners and locals. Helmi's home becomes a German salon, a revolution museum, and a working class commune. And as freedom comes, real estate crooks start sniffing ...

Directed by Hardi Volmer · Written by Peep Pedmanson

Your Rating

Cast

Linda Tallinn Helmi
Mairen Mangusson Helmi / Helen
Sandra Uusberg Helmi / Helmi's Mum
Anu Lamp Helmi
Ita Ever Helmi
Liisa Pärtelpoeg Helmi
Eduard Valli Julius
Marvin Inno Julius
Priit Strandberg Julius
Priit Võigemast Julius / Julius' Dad
Tõnu Oja Julius
Aarne Üksküla Julius

Make it a double feature

2h 31m together

Living Images

Barbarians

Both from Hardi Volmer.

More from Hardi VolmerSee all →

Barbarians

Barbarians · 2003

A mixture of popular stories are reversed and adapted to the Barbie universe. Queen Tiina (that's what these Barbies are called) asks who is the most beautiful in the city of Las Tiinas and someone dares to say that there is someone more beautiful than her. Immediately afterwards, Queen Tiina decides to kill the beautiful doll, who ends up in the sewers surrounded by forgotten toys (such as a melancholic Pinocchio and a charming rag doll).

Jackpot

Jackpot · 1990

It is a political parody film against totalitarian system of violence, about the careless game of power that has been played with the world and peoples.

Lisa Limone and Maroc Orange: A Rapid Love Story

Lisa Limone and Maroc Orange: A Rapid Love Story · 2013

Lisa Limone and Maroc Orange: A Rapid Love Story

MovieAnimationDrama

Love blossoms between Maroc, a singing boat refugee, and Lisa, a collector of singing seashells who dreams about love.

The War

The War · 1987

MovieAnimationWar

The protagonist of the film is the Bat living in an old mill and fighting rats and crows. It’s the war fought by disproportioned forces, where the battle is won by cleverness, skill and cunning. Somewhere outside the mill another war is fought.

Incipit vita nova

Incipit vita nova · 1992

Incipit vita nova

MovieAnimationComedy

A husband taking out the trash finds himself in a peculiar world where all kinds of weird things start to happen.

Wonderful New Year's Night

Wonderful New Year's Night · 1984

Wonderful New Year's Night

A family who, at the beginning of the story gives up the plan to buy toys, forms the frame for the film. Finally the same toys, the doll and the goose, find their way to them through the Christmas night. The toys’ journey ends with an extraordinary miracle that fits for a Christmas night.

The Firewater

The Firewater · 1994

MovieCrimeDrama

At the end of the 1920-s the Finnish government proclaimed dry law which lasted 12 years. Estonian bootleggers living on the neighboring coast of the Gulf of Finland profited from prohibition......

Springfly

Springfly · 1986

Based on A. H. Tammsaare´s short story "The Fly, the Cockroach and the Spider" this animation weights the problem ethics in human relationships.

The Gold Spinners

The Gold Spinners · 2013

The Gold Spinners

MovieDocumentaryHistory

The Gold Spinners is a story about the birth, glory, and disappearance of a peculiar, invisible, and mighty business empire, the film studio Eesti Reklaamfilm, the only company producing commercials in the Soviet Union.

Animated Self-Portraits

Animated Self-Portraits · 1989

Animated Self-Portraits

An animated film compiled by David Ehrlich consisting of 27 animators from different countries all explaining themselves through their animation.

Taarka

The first film in the Seto language in the world speaks about the brightest heroine of a small people, the folk singer Hilana Taarka, a woman who lived her whole life as an outcast in a small chimney-less hut; as an unmarried mother of children in poverty, begging her bread, doing odd jobs and singing. She always sang the truth, sometimes bitter, sometimes funny, sometimes cruel. She was feared, despised and coveted. Taarka sang throughout her remarkable life, throughout her fate, from a small Seto village to international fame. And she sang well. Really well. Taarka became the Mother of the Song, a legend. But as a woman, as a member of the community, the Seto people never really accepted her. Taarka - a despised woman and a worshiped singer.

The Enchanted Island

The Enchanted Island · 1985

The Enchanted Island

MovieAnimationFantasy

A fairytale about the awkward Kohmits who frees his people from an evil spell. Based on the motifs from a Chukchee fairytale.

All My Lenins

All My Lenins · 1997

MovieThrillerComedy

Young and active nationalist Aleksander Kesküla makes up his mind to use Lenin, the Bolsheviks' leader, in order to start a revolution in Russia with German money and create a new national state of Estonia in the north-east of Russia. For security reasons, five doubles will be found and trained for Lenin. All of them are finally sent to Russia to instigate the revolution. How will the real Lenin put up with all this?

Self Made Cameraman

Self Made Cameraman · 2019

Self Made Cameraman

MovieAdventureComedy

An adventurous tragedy about Estonia's first film maker Johannes Pääsuke and his aspirations to travel around with a film camera and find happiness. Together with a good friend, Volter, Pääsuke will spend an incredible week in Setomaa.

A Man Who Never Was

A Man Who Never Was · 1990

A Man Who Never Was

In the final weeks of the existence of the Soviet empire, a number of unusual films were released. In this wry Estonian comedy, a woman with an unusual talent for mimicry which eventually earns her a career on the radio between WWII and the Russian resettlement of that country (with a corresponding deportation of millions of Estonians to Siberia). In an absurd fashion, her self-generate sound effects help her get out of all sorts of scrapes with the authorities. When those fail, her incredible nonchalance succeeds. By the end of the film, it becomes clear that she has bestowed her inimitable imitative gift on her newborn son, as well.

Jubilee Year

Jubilee Year · 2009

MovieDocumentary

The documentary takes the viewer on a visual journey to the recent past where extreme optimism is going to be replaced by sobering reality in the course of a year in Estonia.

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter