Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

Latest reviews

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  The Universal Theory

  Review preview for The Universal Theory

  Multiverses have become a box office staple lately, courtesy of Marvel and the like, but they are rarely as elegantly mounted as this retro and twisty little mystery from Timm Kröger.

  1962. A physics congress in the Alps. An Iranian guest. A mysterious pianist. A bizarre cloud formation in the sky and a booming mystery under the mountain.
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  What Remains

  Review preview for What Remains

  Its slow, observational style allows us to get much closer to the key figures and explore aspects of motive which are commonly lost.

  During the 1990s, at a Scandinavian psychiatric hospital, a man known as Mads Lake confessed to multiple murders and was convicted. However, the uneasy triumvirate of Mads, therapist Anna Rudebeck and policeman Soren Rank all have a vested interest in unearthing the truth, while a deepening co-dependency threatens to consume them all.
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  Hesitation Wound

  Review preview for Hesitation Wound

  Hesitation Wound is a melancholy piece of cinema but such an accomplished one that it is a delight to watch.

  A criminal lawyer faces difficult moral and emotional choices.
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  Much Ado About Dying

  Review preview for Much Ado About Dying

  Although its central perspective is rather simplistic, there’s so much packed in around the edges that quite different narratives emerge there, making for a complex and satisfying whole.

  Looking after his gay actor uncle, filmmaker Simon is engulfed in a whirl of Shakespeare and clutter, as uncle David lends his credit card to neighbours, greets visitors in the nude and teaches Simon a profound lesson on dying happy
• 
  Cat Call

  Review preview for Cat Call

  It’s a film full of small acts of kindness, a film in which it’s possible to make mistakes and keep on going, and in which the audience is therefore at liberty to be entertained by a series of scrapes which might otherwise be mortifying.

  An architect finds her search for love complicated by the fact that whenever she falls for someone she forsees their death.
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  The Invisible Fight

  Review preview for The Invisible Fight

  Sometimes the rumblings are of the Shaw Brothers, at others the Marx Brothers.

  A kung-fu comedy set in an Orthodox Monastery in 1970s Soviet Union.
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  Close Your Eyes

  Review preview for Close Your Eyes

  A meditation on both memory and movies as well as ageing and a hankering for the past that is informed by the melancholic knowledge that nostalgia is inevitably rose-tinted.

  A TV show looking into the mysterious disappearance of an actor leads a director on a journey into his own past while making discoveries in the present.
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  Omen

  Review preview for Omen

  The powerful forces of family and fable, old and new, intertwine and vie for supremacy in Belgian-Congolese director Baloji’s visually striking debut.

  When a man who was cast out as a child after being considered a sorceror returns home, he faces prejudice.
• 
  Mr And Mrs Stodola

  Review preview for Mr And Mrs Stodola

  If one bears in mind that parts of it may be more fiction than fact, it’s an interesting character study, as well as one of the more unusual cinematic portraits of a marriage under stress.

  The story of a husband and wife's killing spree.
• 
  Falling Into Place

  Review preview for Falling Into Place

  As might be expected from an actress-turned-director, the performances are important to Tezel but she also shows an aptitude for visual storytelling.

  A romance between two people, who met too briefly over a winter weekend while on the run from themselves.

A–Z of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2023 reviews →

Features

• Never say die
  Ilango Ramanathan and Hiranya Perera on the remarkable journey of Tentigo
• In search of liberty
  Rodrigo Moreno on freedom and character development in The Delinquents
• Now is now
  Wim Wenders on Yasujirō Ozu, Anselm Kiefer, Ingeborg Bachmann and Perfect Days
• Unconscious symbolism
  Wendy Chuck on Alexander Payne’s multiple Golden Globe-winning The Holdovers
• Taking flight
  Alexander Payne on WC Fields, Artie Shaw and The Holdovers composer Mark Orton
• Layers of mystery
  llker Çatak in conversation on Oscar shortlisted The Teachers’ Lounge, Wim Wenders, and the films that inspired him
• What’s in a name?
  Alexander Payne on Paul Giamatti, Carrie Preston, Westward The Women and The Holdovers
• From the inside out
  Wendy Chuck on Alexander Payne’s multiple Golden Globe-nominated The Holdovers
• Enjoy the trip
  Uri Marantz on making King Khat.. and why it's not a documentary
• A gran plan
  Karl R Hearne on The G's inspiration, those who target the old and the portrayal of female sexuality as a radical act
• Personal politics
  Romas Zabarauskas on political debate and identity in The Writer
• Circus attraction
  Gust Van den Berghe on world creation and comedy with weight in The Magnet Man
• Putting The G in Vengeance
  Dale Dickey on her role as a gran bent on revenge and the resolution of the actors' strike
• A sporting chance
  Julia Fuhr Mann on exploring athletic bias and looking beyond the binary in Life Is Not A Competition, But I'm Winning
• A series of tonal decisions
  Todd Haynes on May December
• A smouldering story
  Thomas Schubert on imposter syndrome and tonal ambiguity in Afire
• Targets of desire
  Christian Petzold on An Affair To Remember, summers and Afire
• The eyes of the world
  Alex Winter on the changing social media landscape and The YouTube Effect
• Steeling the Blade
  Inodchine star Vincent Perez on being back behind and in front of the camera with duelling drama
• In his mind
  Christian Petzold on summer movies and Afire
• Disembodied
  Reuben Hamlyn on non-consensual deepfake pornography and Another Body
• Heat and light
  Anna Hints on capturing the soul of the Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
• Hitting back at domestic abuse
  Spanish writer-director Iciar Bollain talks about her award-winning film Take My Eyes

News

• Tallinn introduces dedicated documentary competition
  Doc@PÖFF will celebrate the best in factual film
• Joy for Misericordia
  Italian film takes top prize in Tallinn
• Dryholm heads jury as Tallinn full line-up revealed
  Festival will screen 185 features including 51 world premieres
• Tallinn announces competition line-up
  20-title showcase includes 13 world premieres