Take It or Leave It

When 15-year-old rebellious Stefi goes missing, her mother Helena has nothing left to lose. Why cling to sanity when madness offers a chance for reconciliation and love?

A parable about a solitary man who has forsaken the world and finds comfort only in planting trees. This activity has become a sacred ritual for him. Yet deep inside, he awaits and seeks some sort of solution to his solitude. One day during a particularly severe drought, the Earth answers him - the man finds the unconscious body of a woman in the soil cracked by the heat. Without stopping to think, he takes her home, resuscitates her and looks after her. This unexpected companion seriously test his convictions. How far can solitude go? A story about the destructive vicious circle of solitude - the fixed idea, love and giving up love.

Unforgettable melodies, unique timbre and a memorable, soul-stirring voice. A mystery for women and authority for men, his talent was revered by the highest ranks of the Soviet Union and millions of ordinary people. Georg Ots took the stage when a huge country was recovering from the horrors of war, and his voice returned them faith in a bright future. Few people know what his life was really like.

Living alone in an Estonian slum and unable to afford basic needs, a top high school student reluctantly enters the drug game to make ends meet.

In 1982, a fire broke out in the Soviet Antarctic research station Vostok and destroyed the station's power plant. The expedition was left without light or heating right before the four-month long polar night set in, with an outside temperature of -70 °C. The men decided not to ask for help, because they knew that it was nowhere to be found.

The nature documentary filmmakers move through all four seasons and four basic landscape types in Estonia: the swamp, the forest, the coast and the wooded meadow. Everything that appears in front of the camera lens, including people, will become a part of the landscape pattern. People have habitated Estonian territory for more than 10 thousand years. Withdrawal of the ice cap created a habitat that has been adjusted to human needs during thousands of years. Lots of fields, pasture lands and hayfields have been created; the forests have been cut and planted. Unnecessary profit making has been avoided. The variety of Estonian landscapes combines wilderness, semi-natural communities and cultivated land.

Alexander Theodor von Middendorff (1815 – 1894), Russian scientist of Baltic German and Estonian origin, organized a scientific expedition to Taymyr Peninsula, the Northern end of Eurasia in 1842-1845. Century and a half later a group of Estonian scientists took the same route. The filmmakers faced the crisp arctic tundra with thousands of birds and wild reindeers and met the native people whose forefathers once gave directions to Middendorff in order to reach the Arctic Ocean.

The River Emajõgi forms a powerful water world hiding an ancient life. Little Aleksander together with his filmmaker father Remek Meel discovers Alam-Pedja nature reserve and the secrets of its enchanting world. Father and son get acquainted with the hidden life of eagles, beavers, otters, waxwings, great snipes, ravens, penduline tits and Ural owls.

Shot in Denmark in 1999, the documentary features exclusive interviews with the creators of the filmmaking movement Dogma 95: Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and Soren Kragh-Jakobsen.

What does it feel to live in the turbulent times as a ten-year-old, in the country that one day thrives and the next day will disappear from the world map? The pivotal times of the year 1939 both for Estonia and the whole world changed history. The filmmakers examine the events side by side with the memories of the children of the era. Family photos, newspaper cuts, dramatic archival excerpts, memories of elderly people who used to be children at that time - all of this reflect the tragic events of 1939 and the silent destruction of the Republic of Estonia.