Animated film
Running time 52 min.
DVD / PAL
© Eesti Joonisfilm
Audio: no dialogue
Ülo Pikkov (born in 1976) is an Estonian animated filmmaker. He has created nine animated films that have won several awards at international film festivals. He has published numerous comic books, caricatures, illustrations, and has also written and illustrated several children's books.
Ülo Pikkov works as a docent in the Estonian Academy of Arts Animation Department.
Eesti Joonisfilm is Estonia's oldest and largest animated film studio. It has operated continuously since its inception in 1971 (at that time still under the name of Tallinnfilm Studio) up to the present. This studio has been the seedbed for several generations of filmmakers, from whose unconventional ideas has budded one of the most bizarre blossoms in the history of film – Estonian animation.
BERMUDA
Running time 11 min.
The animated film Bermuda tells the story of a mermaid and a seaman with a wooden leg who lives among the sand dunes of a sea that has dried up. The mermaid is wholly dependent on the seaman, who carries water to her day after day. A centaur who plays the flute enters the routine life of the seaman and the mermaid. Love sprouts between the centaur and the mermaid.
HEADLESS HORSEMAN
Running time 9 min.
The animated film Headless Horseman tells a story about a solitary and brutal hero, a horseman without a head. The headless horseman is an ordinary resident of the Grand Canyon just like the others but he is missing his head. The headless horseman is afflicted by a serious inferiority complex due to his dissimilarity in terms of the other residents of the canyon and so he is terribly violent.
The film Headless Horseman is a story about compromise between the individual and society.
SUPERLOVE
Running time 1 min.
Superman has defended justice and fought against evil all his life and now he has grown old. In order to add even a little more colour to the days of his old age, Superman has decided to find himself a lover who is capable of flying like him and who would bring children. The film Superlove is a story about one-sided love between Superman and a stork.
YEAR OF THE MONKEY
Running time 12 min.
The film The Year of the Monkey is a story about a monkey who lives in the zoo and by the will of fate is forced to start living like a human being. The monkey is mistaken for a drunken Santa Claus who has ended up in the zoo and is taken to a detoxification centre. There all the monkey's fur is shaved off and by all appearances, he looks the part of a model citizen. Human society quickly accepts its new member, the shaved monkey, and the monkey becomes a respected figure in society.
THE TASTE OF LIFE
Running time 12 min.
The associations between love and food are examined in the film The Taste of Life. Just like the food chain, there also exists the love chain – in order to love somebody, that somebody also has to love somebody. And just as in the food chain, the love chain is also circular and ends with oneself. The film attempts to dissect the nature of love through black humour and to arrive at an understanding of what life tastes like.
BALTIC SEA TABLEMAT
Running time 2 min.
The nature of longing is examined allegorically in the film Baltic Sea Tablemat. People's longings remain hidden in the pillows as a rule, but what should the feathers in a pillow do with their longing?
Two feathers execute a figure skating routine in the film and draw onto the ice Aleksander Suuman's poem Baltic Sea Tablemat.
DIALOGOS
Running time 5 min.
Dialogos is an experimental animated film where all the visual material is drawn directly onto film stock and which is built up on absurd humour. The theme of the film is contemporary high-tech society where too many sign systems exist.
