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BLACK NIGHTS 2021 First Feature Competition

Tallinn announces its First Feature Competition line-up, including a heist musical and a psychedelic ego trip

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- The selection features ten world premieres and, as stated by the festival, a “surprising number of funerals”

Tallinn announces its First Feature Competition line-up, including a heist musical and a psychedelic ego trip
Troubled Minds by Raitis Ābele and Lauris Ābele

Poised to celebrate its 25th anniversary in November, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is ready to reveal its First Feature Competition. “Let’s face it – making a debut feature film isn’t easy at the best of times. But it’s pressure that makes diamonds,” noted festival director Tiina Lokk in a statement.

“We saw enough debuts of a sufficiently high quality that we could have filled up two competition programmes. It’s a genuine shame that we can’t give all of these new directors and their unique films the platform they deserve. What we do have is a real celebration of cinema and a feast for the senses.”

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As for the world premieres, the line-up includes Malachi Smyth’s UK title The Score [+see also:
film review
interview: Malachi Smyth
film profile
]
, described as a “heist musical”, as two crooks sing their way down quite different paths, as well as Alice, Through the Looking [+see also:
film review
interview: Adam Donen
film profile
]
, directed by Adam Donen. Labelled as a “Brexit-referencing Alice in Wonderland retelling”, it will boast Vanessa Redgrave as a narrator. The Red Tree by Joan Gómez Endara and the semi-horror feature Other Cannibals [+see also:
film review
interview: Francesco Sossai
film profile
]
by Francesco Sossai were also chosen, alongside the dramedy Troubled Minds [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lauris Abele, Raitis Abele …
film profile
]
, a Latvian-Polish co-production courtesy of the Ābele brothers, offering “a psychedelic ego trip, in the best possible way”. Lithuania’s Feature Film About Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dovile Sarutyte
film profile
]
by Dovilė Šarutytė will see a woman being forced to organise a DIY funeral for her recently departed father. The film was already part of the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event’s 2020 Works in Progress programme.

Among the international premieres, France’s Her Way [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Cécile Ducrocq will spotlight Call My Agent! thesp Laure Calamy in the lead role as an exceptionally determined and fiercely independent mother. Precious Ivie [+see also:
film review
interview: Sarah Blaßkiewitz
film profile
]
by Germany’s Sarah Blaßkiewitz tracks the shifting relationship between two Afro-German half-sisters brought together by the death of their father – and their experience of the harsh reality of everyday racism in a city not as modern as it seems on the surface – while Serge Mirzabekiantz’s Dark Heart of the Forest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Serge Mirzabekiantz
film profile
]
will lead its viewers, predictably, into the woods, with two troubled teens in love seeking the sense of family that they both never really had.

Celebrated documentary director Iker Elorrieta will experiment with fiction in The Radio Amateur [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, and in Occupation [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michal Nohejl
film profile
]
, hailing from the Czech Republic and directed by Michal Nohejl, the arrival of a distinctly unwanted Russian in a bar full of Czech drinkers brings forth a vodka-soaked clash of cultures. Finally, the much-anticipated Other People [+see also:
film review
interview: Aleksandra Terpińska
film profile
]
by Aleksandra Terpińska will round off the selection. Based on the novel by popular Polish writer Dorota Masłowska, it will show a rich, bored housewife taking on a wannabe rapper first as her handyman, and then as her lover. Blind Love [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
, a co-production between Kenya and Switzerland by Damien Hauser, will celebrate its European premiere at the festival, which will run from 12-28 November in Tallinn and Tartu.

You can find the full line-up of the First Feature Competition below:

The Score [+see also:
film review
interview: Malachi Smyth
film profile
]
- Malachi Smyth (UK)
The Cloud & The Man - Abhinandan Banerjee (India)
Alice, Through the Looking [+see also:
film review
interview: Adam Donen
film profile
]
- Adam Donen (UK)
Who Is Sleeping in Silver Grey - Liao Zihao (China)
Feature Film About Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dovile Sarutyte
film profile
]
- Dovilė Šartytė (Lithuania)
Troubled Minds [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lauris Abele, Raitis Abele …
film profile
]
- Raitis Ābele, Lauris Ābele (Latvia/Poland)
The Red Tree - Joan Gómez Rojo (Colombia/Panama/France)
Other Cannibals [+see also:
film review
interview: Francesco Sossai
film profile
]
- Francesco Sossai (Germany/Italy)
Life Suits Me Well - Al Hadi Ulad-Mohand (Morocco)
Tenzin - Michael LeBlanc, Joshua Reichmann (Canada)
Her Way [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Cécile Ducrocq (France)
Immersion - Nicolás Postiglione (Chile/Mexico)
Precious Ivie [+see also:
film review
interview: Sarah Blaßkiewitz
film profile
]
- Sarah Blaßkiewitz (Germany)
Dark Heart of the Forest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Serge Mirzabekiantz
film profile
]
- Serge Mirzabekiantz (Belgium/France)
Dozen of Norths [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Koji Yamamura (Japan)
The Radio Amateur [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Iker Elorrieta (Spain)
Zuhal [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Nazli Elif Durlu (Turkey)
Occupation [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michal Nohejl
film profile
]
- Michal Nohejl (Czech Republic)
Other People [+see also:
film review
interview: Aleksandra Terpińska
film profile
]
- Aleksandra Terpińska (Poland/France)
Blind Love [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
- Damien Hauser (Kenya/Switzerland)

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