Sügisball

Considering the close geographical, ethnic and linguistic connections between Estonia and Finland, it is a shame how few Estonian films get proper commercial releases here in Finland. In spite of my limited knowledge about the small country's cinema, I enjoyed director Veiko Õunpuu's first feature film Autumn Ball a lot.

Based on a 1979 novel by Mati Unt but set in present day, the film examines the separate but intertwining lives of several people living in the colossal Soviet era housing units in the Lasnamäe district of Tallinn. Mati (Rain Tolk) is a bohemian writer who has just been left by his wife (Mirtel Pohla), while Maurer (Juhan Ulfsak), a trendy architect, is still together with his girlfriend Ulvi (Tiina Tauraite) despite his growing sense of disillusion with his life and the people around him. Theo (Taavi Eelmaa) works as a doorman and is also completely bored with his job, coping with his frustration by seeking numerous sexual encounters with various women. Laura (Maarja Jakobson) is a single mother of a young daughter Lotta (Iris Persson), who is in turn approached by a middle-aged Finnish barber named Kaski (Sulevi Peltola), upsetting her mother and caretaker.

Life in the suburb appears to be highly forlorn; the methods to escape the banal reality range from getting drunk and having a lot of meaningless sex to just watching television or making seemingly obnoxious but secretly sincere advances to whoever is close. Although the overall mood remains desolate almost all the way throughout, there is plenty of deadpan comedy to be found here and there, such as Mati's unsuccessful attempts of stalking his wife, discreetly buying pornography or talking his way out of getting a parking ticket. The film also avoids judging the characters despite their flaws, particularly Kaski, whose true nature is cutely implied even when he is shown little respect inside the story world. Finnish veteran actor Sulevi Peltola is as good as always in his small role, but the Estonian actors deliver enjoyable performances in their quiet roles too.

Narrowing it all down to just the most common elements shared by all the characters, the film's theme could be said to be loneliness and difficulty of communication. Õunpuu utilizes many visual techniques to emphasize the states of mind of his characters: the sickly greenish glow of the exterior scenes at night and the angular shape of the towering apartment buildings against a cloudy sky look great per se, and the carefully planned mise en scène of the wide static shots of run-down urban landscapes follow the tried and true traditions of art cinema beautifully. A spoken reference to the works of the Swedish director legend Ingmar Bergman also cements Autumn Ball's thematic connection to the continuum of similar efforts by earlier filmmakers. However, the film does not only consist of quiet long takes like many stereotypical art films; Õunpuu moves the camera whenever necessary to follow his characters in their daily (and nightly) wanderings, even getting outright shaky at points.

Even if the director's reluctance to provide neat little conclusions and some story lines receiving more attention than others result in there being a risk of the whole feeling slightly incoherent, it is always pleasant to see this type of visually driven storytelling amidst the talky soap opera style of many less skilled directors. The constantly compelling atmosphere keeps Õunpuu's collection of human fates fascinating from start to end, so Autumn Ball can be unhesitatingly recommended to all admirers of good-looking and tragic but sometimes also hopeful stories.

Finally an Estonian film that combines "international" know-how in film-making with a story that is at the same time embedded in the Estonian context and universal. The film describes the life of a series of characters in Lasnamäe, a rather grey bloc house area in Tallinn. And the good news: it avoids all the clichés that could come up when thinking about such depressing neighborhoods. Sügisball is deeply human and the characters are all very complex. The movie shows "the human condition" in autumn colours without abandoning all hope. Visually it is very impressive how Lasnamäe is shown. In some shots the audience is literally diving into this monster out of concrete. We see the daily fight of the protagonists to find love and human contact in an environment that "was created for the future". Full of warmth and depth the film depicts the Lasnamäe in all our minds. Very convincing work!

From those lands which have been in the stronghold of the former UdSSR and where any form of creativity has been strangulated systematically, there is normally not much to await regarding advanced culture. The few Estonian films that are at present (end of 2009) available of international DVDs, are thus practically worthless. But not so Sügisball (2007). It tells, partly serially and partly parallel, the actual stories of five or six couples living in the same typically Communist tower-block where the windows must have been recently substituted but the money was lacking in order to get the isolation material into the wall. Because, in Communist times, most apartments were not rented, but owned by their tenants, we also see how different they look: starting with the poor, booth-like interior of the hairdresser, passing the roomy private-library of the writer/drinker and arriving at the fancy penthouse-stylish flat of the architect.

The people in this movie are basically potential suicides, drinkers, hopeless, betrayers and betrayed, desperate housewives, children without any clear future. We see pictures from one habitation-silo, but they are representing the basic atmosphere of a whole land at the geographical transit from East and West and at the temporal transit between Sowiet dictatorship and a boundless but insecure freedom. The style of the movie is practically a full-copy of that of Kaurismäkis films. I wonder, if the director made this decision deliberately or if there is something coming up like a "Fenno-Estonian movie-style Koine". Fact is: The Kaurismäki-style is so laconic and so light-less that by its means alone it is sufficient to describe despair and hopelessness. However, the director's decision was good. Film-style and story are "isomorphic". Finland has in the person of Aki Kaurismäki the "Finnish Fassbinder". Perhaps Estonia has gotten now in the person of Veiko Öunpuu the "Estonian Fassbinder". I would be happy for Estonia. Like all Fenno-Ugric lands, it has a grand potential of culture, history and metaphysics.

SUGISBALL(Autumn Ball) (dir. Veiko Ounpuu) The film is a series of interconnected stories of disparate characters who live in a dreary housing complex in Tallinn, Estonia where the ugly environs amplify the emotional separation. The film's tone is one of deadpan 'Black Comedy' that communicates histrionic sadness and pent-up romantic longing that at times comes across as mildly amusing. One extremely funny segment (that had nothing to do with the movie) was where an overweight, assistant doorman impersonates Michael Jackson's music video,'Beat It'. This can only be seen to be believed and is nothing short of hysterical. Overall, the film provides very little resolution, but the film's attitude and spirit are somewhat reminiscent of Baltic directors Ingmar Bergman and Krzysztof Kieslowski.

Sugisball (2007)

For an American, this is a great insight into ordinary life in Estonia, which is one of three small countries on the western rim of the Soviet Empire, and just south of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The paths of several ordinary people, mostly young people, are interwoven in a set of vignettes that complicate as these people live very contemporary and European style lives, but with a palpable sense of oppression. It's fascinating. It's supposed to be a Soviet era apartment complex, and has the trappings of the dystopia that represents, but the people are individualistic and expressive without a feeling of repression.

What presides more clearly is a feeling of sadness and depression. Sometimes there is distrust, other times downright abuse and brutality. There is very little joy, and very little love, at least in the open way we think of it. And so because of all this the movie bristles with irritations and perceptions about the normal world. It's a slice of life, done with sensitivity. It actually reminded me of some Scandinavian films I've seen in the last decade. Another review remarks that it has a Finnish echo (I just read this after making my own point), so maybe there is something to the film industry on the fringe of Europe, not overwhelmed by American/British movies, and perhaps feeling the oppression of the Soviet era in its art scene. And there is an echo of climate and light.

A key scene, certainly, toward the end, has a submissive coatcheck man release his pent up frustrations against a highrolling patron, who happens (with a bit of irony, I'm sure) to be a director. What does he direct? "Relationship comedies." And this (because it's so impossible an idea for this world, maybe?) sends the coatchecker into a rage. It's overdone, but it's followed by an older man laughing hysterically, all by himself on his bed, and it gives a little depth to the whole enterprise.

"Sugisball" (which means Autumn Ball) doesn't really make a case for why it's valuable, or special. I mean, besides being heartfelt and nicely penetrating, and focused on something that will someday soon seem historical, there is no terrific larger point, larger than its own subject. Maybe this is enough. It's totally absorbing, with a large array of actors, most of them very convincing. There are some touching scenes, some frankly sexual ones, and everything is very everyday. It may not be transforming, but it's superb in its own way. Take it for what it is.