Skip to main content

Festival coverage

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

7 November – 23 November 2025

The 29th edition of the festival will run from November 7 to 29. We are currently inputting details of the films screening, so please check back soon.

Other years (9)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • Forastera
    Review preview for Forastera

    Aleñar Iglesias... presents the ordinary world as loaded with meaning.

    Nikola Jovic · 3 out of 5
    During her Mallorca summer, Antonia recognises similarities with her late grandma. She develops an influence over her mourning grandpa through dress-up, blurring who inhabits who.
  • Hen
    Review preview for Hen

    You’re unlikely to see anything quite like it any time soon.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    A hen seeks refuge, where she becomes an innocent observer of a human trafficking gang.
  • Mother's Baby
    Review preview for Mother's Baby

    The filmmaker who previously made her name with romantic comedy-dramas, proves to be a bonafide genre auteur, although it is her first attempt

    Marko Stojiljkovic · 3.5 out of 5
    The family dream becomes a nightmare as 40-year-old Julia struggles to bond with her newborn child.
  • The Wizard Of The Kremlin
    Review preview for The Wizard Of The Kremlin

    Dano has chosen to use the same flat vocal expression throughout, a technique well suited to satire which might have worked if only the rest of the film had been a bit more lively.

    Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
    Russia, early 1990s. Amid post-Soviet chaos, a brilliant young man, Vadim Baranov, charts his path. First an artist, then a reality show producer, he becomes the spin doctor to a rising KGB agent: Vladimir Putin.
  • Mr. Nobody Against Putin
    Review preview for Mr. Nobody Against Putin

    Despite the depressing nature of what’s happening at the school, Talankin’s affection for his students and his resilient sense of humour ensure that the film is always engaging.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    As Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, primary schools across Russia’s hinterlands are transformed into recruitment stages for the war. Facing the ethical dilemma of working in a system defined by propaganda and violence, a brave teacher goes undercover to film what’s really happening in his own school.
  • Fiume O Morte!
    Review preview for Fiume O Morte!

    Fiume O Morte! resists a purely historical reading, instead inviting a present-day sociological perspective in which the authoritarian leader becomes one element within the city’s layered history.

    Pavla Banjac · 5 out of 5
    In 1919, Italian poet and fascist Gabriele D’Annunzio occupies the Croatian city of Fiume and declares it his personal state.
  • Rental Family
    Review preview for Rental Family

    It’s not a showy performance, but it’s a standout.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A lonely American actor living in Tokyo starts working for a Japanese 'rental family' company to play stand-in roles in other people's lives. Along the way, he finds surprising connections and unexpected joys within his built-in family.
  • Kokuho
    Review preview for Kokuho

    The performances are thrilling, emotionally direct and physically exacting, but they function as narrative instruments too.

    Edin Custo · 4.5 out of 5
    A boy born into a family of gangsgters is taken in by a kabuki theatre actor and finds a talent for the craft.
  • The Voice Of Hind Rajab
    Review preview for The Voice Of Hind Rajab

    There is some very good work here, and all of it tempered where it needs to be, to give due prominence to Hind herself.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A six-year old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her.
  • No Other Choice
    Review preview for No Other Choice

    Park keeps inviting us to laugh, then forcing us to confront what, exactly, we’re laughing at.

    Edin Custo · 4 out of 5
    When a man loses his job he finds himself drifting before deciding to take things into his own hands...

A–Z of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2025 reviews

Features

News