Selected to represent Estonia in the Best International Feature category at the 2023 Oscars.
The director said that he and his family would watch every game of Estonia's national team, Kalev. "What started as the usual, yearly series of basketball battles evolved into a fight between our nation and the Soviet Union," he said.
"Thousands of families were forced to share their homes with an older generation that had already lost everything. Our existence was riddled with increasing fear, as news came in of tanks rolling over independence movements further away in the Baltics," continued Musting.
The film marks the feature debut of Musting and is inspired by events he witnessed while growing up in Estonia. "I was 14 years old in 1991 when Estonia - my tiny home country in the Baltics - found itself on the verge of breaking out of the Soviet Union," said the helmer.
Inspired by a true story, the film is set during the summer of 1990.