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FESTIVALS Estonia / USA

Estonian feature screens for the first time at Tribeca

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- Ilmar Raag’s latest film has been screened at the New York festival

Estonian feature screens for the first time at Tribeca
I Won't Come Back by Ilmar Raag

Estonia scored a first at the Tribeca Film Festival this past week when Ilmar Raag’s I Won’t Come Back – a co-production between Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Kazakhstan and Russia – received its world premiere on 18 April in the Viewpoints section. It represents the first time that Estonia has screened a film at the New York-based festival.

Estonian director Raag is well known internationally thanks to such films as The Class [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and more recent titles such as Love Is Blind [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
and A Lady in Paris [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, with the latter movie being praised for its star turn from Jeanne Moreau.

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I Won’t Come Back follows the story of Anya, who is on the run from the police when she encounters Kristina, an orphan determined to find her grandmother in Kazakhstan. Kristina offers a momentary solution to Anya’s desperate situation, and the unlikely pair begins a harrowing and unpredictable odyssey, hitchhiking across the epic landscapes of Russia and its neighbouring countries.

Speaking exclusively to Cineuropa, Raag said: “Tribeca was a bit of a surprising start for our film, but as we're happy to have an American sales agent – Visitfilm – then we decided to give it a go. Tribeca has become very important for independent cinema over its 13 years of existence, while defining its own identity. It is a very viewer-friendly festival, and there are more filmmakers here and less industry than in Sundance. It means that besides meeting the viewers, Tribeca has to start the buzz that hopefully will be capitalised on in Cannes.”

I Won’t Come Back is written by Jaroslava Pulinovich, and stars Russian actors Anya Polina Pushkaruk and Kristina Victoria Lobacheva, the latter in her first professional role. The film is produced by CTB Film Company, Amrion, Helsinki Filmi, Belarusfilm and Kazakhfilm. It is due for domestic release on 18 September 2014.

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