in tiMe

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Estonian film producer, Riina Sildos, has played an important
role in the making of films, such as „The Poll Diaries”,
„Lotte from Gadgetville”, „The Class” and „I Was Here”.
Spring 2011 sees the release of the
second feature-length animated
film about the cheerful puppy girl
called „Lotte and the Moonstone
Secret”, produced by Riina Sildos.
At the same time another feature film „One
More Croissant” produced by her is underway
in Paris.
„One More Croissant” is a joint film
production of Estonia, France and Belgium,
the preparation of which has been
rather long and time consuming. The
scriptwriter and director of the film is Ilmar
Raag who also directed Sildos’ production
„The Class” which is by far the most successful
Estonian film ever – it has been sold
to 91 countries, participated in 70 international
film festivals and received 25 awards.
The feature-length animated film „Lotte
and the Moonstone Secret” was produced
in co-operation by two production companies,
Eesti Joonisfilm from Estonia and Rija
Films from Latvia. In Estonia, the film is
screened in May after which it goes on international
release. The first animated film
about Lotte – „Lotte from Gadgetville”, was
released in 2006 and soon won the hearts
of children in more than 55 countries.
There was a lot of talk about engaging
top French actor, Gérard Depardieu,
to play in the feature film, “One More
Croissant”. Why didn’t it work out with
Depardieu and why is it so important to
cast someone famous?
I just love the speculations that come with the territory. Filmmaking
is a long process and casting is a very important part of it
as it is directly connected with financing, especially abroad. Internationally
famous actors guarantee a certain level of interest
in the film and box office earnings accordingly. Film stars alone,
however, do not guarantee the 100 per cent success of the film.
When the story is weak, people come to see their favourite actor
during the first few weeks but after the general release of the film
they tend to lose interest. We also considered other French male
actors for the role – there are three international stars in France
– but unfortunately none of them quite suited us for the role in
question.
We dreamed of casting Jeanne Moreau as from the very beginning
and I am glad she agreed to read the script – which she
did in just two days – and accepted the role. French actors have
agents who prefer to negotiate mainly with the French and
therefore Estonian producers have a hard time
getting noticed. Although Ilmar Raag has
proven himself as a director and „The Class”
has been extremely successful, for the French,
he is still an unfamiliar name. Therefore,
I am extremely glad Jeanne Moreau put
her faith in him.
What is the appeal of „The Class”
by Ilmar Raag?
It is an exceptionally strong film based on
an exceptionally good script. The actors are
also the co-authors of the story i.e. young
people who played in surroundings familiar
to them and they loved the acuteness,
honesty and bluntness of the story.
The issue of school violence is universal.
For instance, we received an awful lot of letters
from Russia and there was not a single
one among them saying negative things about
the film. Russians related to the theme well.
Unfortunately, we were compelled
to admit that the kind of psychological
violence shown in the film is everywhere
around us. It is perhaps part of the struggle for
existence that is manifest in a workplace or in
a family. Therefore, the target audience of the
film is very large – and it is frightening.
On the other hand, there are people who
have said that they could not watch the film
as it arises emotions too powerful to deal with.
As a rule, these are people coming from a safe
environment, people living happy and harmonious
lives. They have not been forced to face
this kind of problems and thus it is psychologically hard for
them to watch the film.
In Estonia, “The Class” has contributed to the discussion
in society about it being a good example of how art contributes
to the “saving” of the world. I believe it was a very brave move
to make this kind of film. Several school teachers even sought
the banning of the film which proved that we had hit a nerve
and were breaking taboos.
The film anticipated the unfortunate event of the school
shooting in Finland – one of the few countries where “The
Class” has not been shown. I have discussed the film with my
Finnish colleagues on several occasions and every time they
have said that they could not watch the film – as it was too soon
after the tragedy and too painful. This was partly why I decided
to make a TV series that would deal with the events after the
school shooting. The film left a lot of questions unanswered and
the TV series tries to deal with them.
kevad/spring 2011 I INTIME 15