Candles in the Dark

In hopes of shaping her up, Sylvia (played by Alyssa Milano) is sent to Estonia to live with her aunt. Though happy to see her family, she wants nothing to do with being in Estonia, a place without the luxuries of home, where most people don't even own telephones. However, once she discovers that Estonia is also a place where Christmas is not allowed to be celebrated, churches are closed up, and most people are living in fear, she discovers a passion to reach out and help. Soon after, she finds herself in the middle of a group effort to help Estonians regain the right to celebrate Christmas, following in her father's footsteps, and falling in love with the leader of the rebellion. However, before she can whole-heartily fight for the Estonians, she must first learn to put aside shallow things and realize what is truly important in life. This is a movie of adventure, heroism, courage, hope, love, compassion and danger. If you're looking to be inspired, I highly recommend it!

Natalya Andreychenko is the great actress here, playing the most interesting character and part, at first protecting her niece by any means from having anything to do with any underground revolution movements and then changing attitude completely as she understands her niece has taken a final stand. The story, the dramaturgy, the direction, the play-acting, everything is excellent and combine in fulfilling the purpose of the film: to give a clear picture of the Estonian singing revolution. There are some precarious tendencies to sentimentality and bathos, but the risks are avoided, and it all ends up in a general harmonisation of the miracle of a singing revolution of just lighting candles and insisting on the human right to celebrate Christmas. In some ways this is a Christmas film for all times, the message is universal, and as Günther Maria Halmer as the priests says, if people have no right of religion, they have no rights at all, and the most stupid thing an autocracy ever can do is to target and make martyrs out of priests, which mistake they always seem to commit, which must turn the whole people against the regime. All the actors are good, the director Maximilian Schell, an old veteran actor, is himself quite convincing as a communist colonel with some sense of realism in spite of all, and he makes the best of a good script and his own good direction, but it's Natalya Andreychenko and Günther Maria Halmer who really make the film.