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BLACK NIGHTS 2021 Competition

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival announces its full 2021 Official Selection line-up

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- The festival’s main competition programme has added 11 international premieres and three European ones

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival announces its full 2021 Official Selection line-up
The Wedding Day by Wojtek Smarzowski

Nineteen films will be screened in competition, with three out of competition, during the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival’s 25th-anniversary edition, set to run from 12-28 November in Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia. The full programme will be announced at the start of November.

“When we began the Black Nights Film Festival 25 years ago, we didn’t even have cinemas to screen our films in,” said festival director Tiina Lokk. “It’s vitally important, in these challenging times for the culture business, to make sure that film fans continue to visit cinemas and have that essential experience. The best way to do this is surely to show them the very best, the most provocative and the most inspiring films that world cinema has to offer.”

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In competition, Polish director Wojtek Smarzowski will present The Wedding Day [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Wojciech Smarzowski
film profile
]
– bringing back memories of his 2004 effort The Wedding and once again digging deep into the inner workings of Polish society. In No Looking Back [+see also:
interview: Kirill Sokolov
film profile
]
(Russia), Kirill Sokolov, of Why Don’t You Just Die! [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
fame, will take a look at three generations of women struggling to align their interests. The biopic Dear Thomas [+see also:
film review
interview: Andreas Kleinert
film profile
]
by Andreas Kleinert will focus on rebellious poet Thomas Brasch as he clashes with the authorities, and in her third feature, What Went Wrong? [+see also:
film review
interview: Liliana Torres
film profile
]
, Liliana Torres casts herself as the protagonist, setting off on a humorous journey through her exes.

Emre Erdoğdu’s The List of Those Who Love Me will prove that, at least according to the festival’s statement, “even drug dealers need some love and appreciation in their lives”, while Santi Amodeo’s The Gentiles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Santi Amodeo
film profile
]
depicts a coming-of-age story: “Bipolar dazzle versus suicidal ideation, reflected through a social-media prism.” After that, it’s time for a sudden swerve into the 1960s with A Place Called Dignity [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
, set in a notorious commune in Southern Chile, and exploring the themes of freedom, control and revolution.

A Vanishing Fog [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Augusto Sandino
film profile
]
, Augusto Sandino’s second feature and a Colombian-Czech-Norwegian co-production, will show a man caring for his father, apprehensively awaiting a confrontation with forces beyond his home in the wilderness and a bittersweet farewell to the life he knows. Bolat Kalymbetov’s Mukagali revolves around a legendary Kazakh poet, struggling with the communist authorities and his own addictions, and Alex van Warmerdam’s tenth film, aptly titled Nr. 10 [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
, will show an actor on the eve of the premiere of a new stage production, forced into a reckoning with his past. Finally, in Animals [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile
]
, Nabil Ben Yadir will deliver a brutal portrait of discrimination and violence.

The mood will lighten up outside of the competition, with a showing of the acclaimed Compartment No. 6 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juho Kuosmanen
film profile
]
by Juho Kuosmanen, written by the director and two Estonian screenwriters, Andris Feldmanis and Livia Ulman. Then, Carlos Saura will return with the musical The King of All the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, while the Venice entry Captain Volkonogov Escaped [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
will show its protagonist on the run once again, pondering – alongside its directorial duo, Aleksey Chupov and Natasha Merkulova – some existential questions while he’s at it.

Here is the full list of titles:

Official Selection - Competition

A Place Called Dignity [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
- Matias Rojas Valencia (Chile/Argentina/Germany)
A Vanishing Fog [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Augusto Sandino
film profile
]
- Augusto Sandino (Colombia/Czech Republic/Norway)
Animals [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile
]
- Nabil Ben Yadir (Belgium/France)
Big Night - Jun Robles Lana (Philippines)
Dear Thomas [+see also:
film review
interview: Andreas Kleinert
film profile
]
- Andreas Kleinert (Germany)
Herd Immunity [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
- Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Kazakhstan/France)
Killing the Eunuch Khan - Abed Abest (Iran)
Make the Devil Laugh - Ryuichi Mino (Japan)
MukagaliBolat Kalymbetov (Kazakhstan)
Nr. 10 [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
- Alex van Warmerdam (Netherlands/Belgium)
No Looking Back [+see also:
interview: Kirill Sokolov
film profile
]
- Kirill Sokolov (Russia)
Perpetuity [+see also:
film review
interview: György Pálfi
film profile
]
- György Pálfi (Hungary)
Songs for a Fox [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Džiugas Grinys
interview: Kristijonas Vildziunas
film profile
]
- Kristijonas Vildžiūnas (Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia)
The Gentiles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Santi Amodeo
film profile
]
- Santi Amodeo (Spain)
The List of Those Who Love Me - Emre Erdoğdu (Turkey)
The Wait [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
- Aku Louhimies (Finland)
The Wedding Day [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Wojciech Smarzowski
film profile
]
- Wojtek Smarzowski (Poland)
What Went Wrong? [+see also:
film review
interview: Liliana Torres
film profile
]
- Liliana Torres (Spain/Italy/Mexico)
Yanagawa - Zhang Lu (China)

Official Selection - Out of Competition

Captain Volkonogov Escaped [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Aleksey Chupov, Natasha Merkulova (Russia/Estonia)
Compartment No. 6 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juho Kuosmanen
film profile
]
- Juho Kuosmanen (Finland/Germany/Estonia/Russia)
The King of All the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Carlos Saura (Spain/Mexico)

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