North-Eastern Europe’s largest film celebration, the 19th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (BNFF), has revealed four competition titles ahead of the rest of its selection - two in the main competition and two in its inaugural first features competition, all world and international premieres. 

Tallinn BNFF’s main competition titles are led by the international premiere of a documentary on the ideal life in North Korea, Under the Sun [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Vitaly Mansky
scheda film], directed by award-winning Russian filmmaker and political activist Vitaly Mansky (Pipeline), and the world premiere of former Cannes and Venice entrant, Latvian director Laila Pakalnina’s Dawn [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which also examines life under a totalitarian regime – in this case, in the Soviet Union.

In the first features competition, well-known Estonian film and TV documentarian Urmas Eero Liiv has his theatrical fiction feature debut Ghost Mountaineer [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] set for a world premiere, while the award-winning Russian TV and theatre director Viktor Dement has his debut The Find set for an international premiere.

Notably, the three films Dawn, Ghost Mountaineer and The Find participated in last year’s Baltic Event Co-production Market’s Works in Progress showcase at Industry@Tallinn. 

Tiina Lokk, festival director of Tallinn BNFF, said, “In the case of In the Rays of the Sun, it is one of the most intriguing of these rare documentaries about life in North Korea that you can see right now. And this film and Dawn, which makes an organic use of style referencing the great Soviet masters like Eisenstein to express its content, actually give synergy to each other – both speaking about totalitarian regimes, creating a moving dialogue.”