Virago
2019 · 16m · Estonia
Directed by Kerli Kirch Schneider
Genres: dark comedy, drama, fantasy
Tones: dark, darkly comic, mythic
In a mysterious Estonian village where no man has ever lived to see his fortieth birthday, Tonu is about to turn forty. Inspired by true events from the Southern Estonian village of Vastse-Roosa, the film blends folklore and dark comedy to examine gendered survival.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
An actual Estonian village where men died young, cast with real locals, told as dark comedy — that's the kind of folkloric specificity you can't fake. South Estonia rarely gets to be the protagonist.
An Estonian folk premise rooted in actual demographic tragedy from Vastse-Roosa, cast with the locals who lived it — this is the Roy Andersson-meets-Ulrich Seidl deadpan-anthropology mode, and the comparison to Songs from the Second Floor is well chosen. A specificity that no AI-generated synopsis could fabricate.
Casting actual South Estonian locals from Vastse-Roosa — where men genuinely died young — collapses the documentary/fiction line in the best way. Sixteen minutes of dark folkloric comedy with this kind of lived foundation is exactly what regional cinema is for.
Reviews
Schneider's film blends mythology with social commentary to construct a darkly humorous fairytale that serves as both an elegy for the men who died too young and a tribute to the women who endured.
Full of ominous foreshadowing, mysticism, satire and dark humor this short film manages to grip from the first scene until the last.
Festivals
- ShorTS International Film Festival 2021