20/03/2015 - Rehepapp has been awarded €210,000 by the co-production fund

After meeting on 12 March, the Eurimages co-production fund has awarded the latest film by Estonian director Rainer Sarnet €210,000. His movie Rehepapp – produced by Homeless Bob Productions – was one of the 20 projects out of the 33 presented that received funding.

Sarnet’s film is based on Andrus Kivirähk’s book of the same name and is planned to be a dark fantasy. The action takes place in a pagan Estonian village, which – during the month of November – is brimming with rumours of werewolves, ghosts and the plague. The villagers must try to survive the cold, harsh winter, and we follow one in particular – Liina – as she falls unhappily in love with fellow villager Hansu. Shot in black and white, the movie mixes dark humour, romance, horror and magic.

Producer Katrin Kissa said, “Rehepapp is an ambitious endeavour with a budget of €1.3 million, and – despite the generous 55% of funding from the Estonian Film Institute and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia – with only Estonia on board, the film would remain uncompleted, so it’s being produced in collaboration with the Netherlands and Poland. In light of the news from Eurimages, we can breathe a little easier, because the financing is in place. Now we can start to realise our ambitions.”

Rehepapp began shooting in November 2014 and will continue in spring and autumn in Valga County in southern Estonia, Saare County and around Estonia’s capital of Tallinn.