One of the seven projects set to be presented during the Tallinn Goes to Cannes showcase on 18 May is writer-director Eeva Mägi’s third feature, titled Mo Papa. The picture is the second instalment of a trilogy that started with Mo Mamma [+lire aussi :
critique
interview : Eeva Mägi
fiche film], which world-premiered in the First Features strand at last year's Tallinn Black Nights International Film Festival.

An alumna of Tallinn’s Baltic Film and Media School, Mägi worked on several shorts and premiered her first two features in 2023 – the aforementioned Mo Mamma and the documentary Who Am I Smiling For?, which screened at Giffoni and opened the Just Film section at Tallinn.

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The plot of Mo Papa zooms in on Eugen, who is released from prison at the age of 28. He has no one except his father Helmar, who abandoned him when he was born, and friends Stina and Riko from the orphanage. Eugen attempts to begin a new life and contacts his father, but his unresolved abandonment trauma means he finds himself returning to violence in an endless cycle.

The main cast includes Jarmo Reha, Ester Kuntu, Rednar Annus and Paul Abiline. Key creatives are DoP-editor Sten-Johan Lill (also serving as the producer), production designer Allan Appelberg, Italian composer Alessandro Malcangi and costume designer Ulvi Tiit.

The picture, now in post-production, was shot in Tallinn.

Delving into the main themes of her project and the whole trilogy, the director tells Cineuropa: “The Mo film trilogy talks about the human need to be loved and understood, and how the inability to accept oneself and life itself, often lead to the wrong path. The films are lifelike and painful, raise important questions, and reflect socially complex topics.”

“In Mo Papa, a young man takes centre stage. A man who, from birth, acquired a trauma — a sense of abandonment for which he bears no responsibility, yet which begins to determine his entire life. Having interacted with several children from orphanages and prisoners, it becomes very clear that our notion that everyone is equal and has opportunity is far from true. Many children are born into a ‘box’ from which escape is impossible and inevitably face a lifetime confronting a perfect violent machinery, [made up of] endless drowning in self-hatred, blame, and the need to receive love.”

Adds producer Sten-Johan Lill: “In Estonia, a director must spend years developing their feature film, submitting new applications and versions to different committees until, in the worst-case scenario, the director and creative crew might become disconnected from the original feeling and idea they wanted to create.”

“However, there is another, much riskier path—to create from a sincere and immediate feeling, right here and now—by involving like-minded collaborators who also want to make the film out of pure passion and are willing to invest more than mere wages would motivate them to. One must blindly believe that a miracle will happen and something genuine and beautiful will be born. And if it doesn’t succeed, there’s no problem, because everyone will be much richer from the rich experience gained. The key is to keep evolving, experimenting, and embracing both failures and successes.”

Mo Papa is being staged by Mägi for Kultuurikuur (Estonia) and Lill for Kinosaurus Film (Estonia). The team aims to release the film in Q1 2025.

The project, partly funded by private investors and partly self-funded, received backing from the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.