17/01/2007

Two Estonian national figures will attend the Berlinale next February: actor Rain Tolk, selected among the European Film Promotion 2007 Shooting Stars, and the beloved female dog character Lotte from the animated film Lotte From Gadgetville [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which will screen in competition as part of the Generation KPlus Programme.

A former journalist and philosophy graduate, Tolk became an actor in 2000 when he decided to play a hyper-paranoid journalist for a fake television show on Esto TV in 2000, in which fictitious characters would meet real life politicians or celebs to create absurd situations, similar to Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat.

Tolk continued acting in other feature length mockumentaries directed by his friend and Esto TV co-founder Andres Maimik, such as Choose Order, voted Best Film by the Estonian Film Critics Association in 2004.

Tolk and Maimik – who set up their own production outfit, Kuukulgur Films, in 2002 – are now co-directing a new feature film in the same satirical vein: the black comedy 186 Kilometres, in which Estonian actor Jan Uuspõld is cast against a list of real Estonian celebrities (including the president of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves). The film – about a real-life person’s problems with alcohol, gambling, lying, about stereotypes and the way people communicate – will be released domestically on February 22.

Tolk also plays the lead in the drama Autumn Ball by Veiko Õunpuu, another Kuulkugur production to be released this year.

The Estonian flag will also be waved in Berlin by the animated film Lotte in Gadgetville, directed by Heiki Ernits and Janno Põldma. The biggest local hit of 2006 (54,000 admissions), which beat blockbusters Casino Royale [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Cars, will be one of 14 titles to screen in the Generation KPlus section.

Lotte in Gadgetville was produced by Eesti Joonisfilm in co-production with Latvia’s Rija Films and with support from the MEDIA Programme and Eurimages. Germany’s Sola Media is handlng world sales.