Beauty of Fatherland

With capitalism and corruption becoming more entrenched in Russia, a father and his teenage son gear up for a yearlong political campaign to unseat President Putin in the 2008 elections and shift the country back toward socialism. Aliona Polunina's thoughtful documentary follows Anatoly and Andrei in their struggle to recreate a revolutionary fervor in a society that seems to be embracing the materialist values of the West.

Nighttime at the tram depot. A closed tram car, from which a young businessman who fell asleep on the tram finds himself waking up. However, he is not alone...

Year 1208. The first Eastward enlargement of Europe is under way. Brutal forces of the Teutonic Order are steadily marching on. In their path live a simple and peaceful people, whose main pastimes include cultivating the earth, singing and, if possible, doing both at the same time. They are the Estonians. Ignorant in the ways of war, they find an unlikely leader in a young boy with Catholic upbringing. In their fight for freedom, the Estonians encounter numerous obstacles, including the Germans, French, Russians and, worst of all, the Latvians. Will they succeed in defeating their enemies or will they experience a cultural awakening?

Juhan Liiv, a struggling poet and an unlikely detective, solves gruesome murder cases in Estonia, the Wild West of the crumbling Russian Empire in the 1890s. Investigations take him to miserable dwellings of the local Estonian peasants, luxurious castles of German nobility that have sworn allegiance to the Czar, and to the depths of ancient forests where witchcraft is still practiced. Juhan is fighting crime and his own inner demons. He is considered mad and pronounced crazy. But by standing for justice and truth, at the end of the day, he is the sanest of them all.

A gang of five children spend their summer in an abandoned factory complex. When they are forbidden to go there by the factory owner for safety reasons, the children decide to ignore the ban. This decision changes their lives forever and the friends face a grim confrontation.

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.

Veteran actors from the 3 Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - gather at a castle in Latvia to receive awards for their roles as Nazi villains in propagandist Soviet war films. They reminisce about the films that made them famous throughout the USSR, but also stigmatized the Baltic countries as Nazi sympathizers in the eyes of many Russians - a misconception that is nowadays exploited by the Russian media, desperate to label the Baltic countries as a fascist haven.

Is everything in life a matter of how you sell yourself? Can Evelin's motto "manipulate and be manipulated" lead everyone to happiness? And does the church really sell God?

In Soviet-era Estonia, three young mavericks drop everything and flee to Sweden, but soon learn the free world is not all it's cracked up to be.

A different history of the Cold War: how Estonians under Soviet tyranny began to feel the breeze of freedom when a group of anonymous dreamers successfully used improbable methods to capture the Finnish television signal, a window into Western popular culture, brave but harmless warriors who helped change the fate of an entire nation.

In the summer of 1987, Estonia languishes under Soviet rule, stifling free expression. 17-year-old Mihkel, a rebellious musician, and his rival Hendrik learn of a Finnish talent scout visiting Estonia. To impress him, they must journey to a distant rock festival on the other side of the country. They assemble a group, including Mihkel's secret love Liisa. Amid rivalry and chaos, they navigate challenges, discovering their true selves along the way.

A married couple living in Karlova, Tartu, organize a reception for the Republic of Estonia at their home every year on February 24. A humorous insight into the party that takes place in parallel with the glamorous presidential ball, which vividly illustrates what happens in front of thousands of TVs throughout Estonia on this day.

It's December and Christmastime, but outside the summer sun blazes. Something is wrong! The Mayan calendar predicts that the world will end on December 21, 2012. Every Estonian has to decide how they will spend their last days. Rait finally wants to confess his feelings to his lifelong love, the starlet Lenna Kuurmaa. His friend Mihkel, hits his head, goes bonkers, and needs to save the world by sacrificing that very same Lenna to the Sun Gods. Brenda wants to escape her dictatorial mother but insane asylum orderlies chase her. Ervin wins the world's last lottery and is so upset by not having any way to spend it that he wants to die from misery. Confusion reigns, but hope always dies last... And, fortunately, the end finally comes.

The film portrays five different Estonian female politicians: Minister of Culture Signe Kivi, businesswoman Terje Aru, former Miss Estonia Kristiina Heinmets, strike movement leader Kadi Pärnits, and the grand old lady of Estonian women's politics, Marju Lauristin. All of them have been in the media spotlight, and many have fallen victim to it due to their openness. How can a woman assert herself in a post-communist society? What opportunities do women have to succeed in politics within a traditionally patriarchal system? Through the actions of these five protagonists, the hidden world of Estonian politics unfolds—both in its glamour and its horror.

Six fresh short films on the topic "Own and Stranger" from even more fresh Estonian directors.

The children's world includes as much brutality as the world of adults. Filmmakers Andres Maimik and Jaak Kilmi study the cases of the following kids: Kätlin, Märt, Marek and Indrek. All of them have experienced more violence in their own way than most of the kids of their age. The film brings the viewer to a sad journey to the hidden and traumatic zone in society. The filmmakers try to talk to the children, parents and teachers about the subjects that are often referred to only in abstract ways.