Thursday at the festival March 26, 2010

Festivals often pose the dilemma of whether to come and see as many films as you can, or to try to predict your favorites and experience the details more thoroughly. As I cannot participate in the whole festival this year, I decided to go for the first choice, and indeed I did manage to see quite a few of my favourites. The first of those was Nomad's Land, which I saw in the Video Library. It was a real treat, possibly one of the best travel documentaries. So personal, so peaceful, so “off-the-road”.

Another favourite was Liivo Niglas's new film. Although the film described a hunting trip, I felt at some point that even if there won't be any hunting done, the film with its stories stands out on its own. Magnificent visual work, silence that was as talkative as dialogue, darkness as significant as light.

And thirdly, Setu Wedding made me think of traditions and universalisation. As I don't have roots in Setumaa, Setu people seem to me as far and exotic as Mayans or Hindus. Universalisation takes us closer to the roots of all the world, and yet we would want to ask whether there is anything genuine left when we learn about traditions in such a way. I don't have an answer. My roots, as far as I know, are in western Estonia landscapes, but there is no such tradition, or at least it hasn't reached to me. My tradition is the landscape.

Mathura