Kumu Documentary: Mark Soosaar 80: Author’s evening
Mark Soosaar is a documentary film-maker whose evocative and poetic films introduced a level of subjectivity never seen before. Soosaar is the founder of the Pärnu Museum of New Art, an organiser of the Pärnu Film Festival, a promoter of cinematic and visual arts, and a spokesperson for Kihnu culture. He will turn 80 on 12 January, and audiences will be treated to one of his masterpieces, Earthly Desires (Maised ihad, 1977), and the newly restored Harbour in the Mist (Sadam udus, 1986).
Films:
Earthly Desires
Dir Mark Soosaar
Estonia 1977, 95 min
Mark Soosaar, one of Estonia’s leading documentary film-makers, presents a documentary essay on Eduard Wiiralt, a clairvoyant of the diabolical and an artist of angelic light, as described by the critic Pierre Mornand in the magazine Le Courrier Graphique in 1937. The film brings together two different worlds – natural simplicity and metropolitan extravaganza – following in the artist’s footsteps and delving into the mysteries of his works. The camera travels across Estonia, Lapland, Paris and Morocco. Not all of the models can be found, but the thoughts and spirit that accompanied the artist can.
Harbour in the Mist
Dir Mark Soosaar
Estonia 1986, 10 min
An elderly couple, Johann-Voldemar Esna and his wife Ida, have found a safe haven in the village of Saulepi in Pärnu County, despite the winds blowing in from the sea and the creeping fog. The garden and the entire driveway to their farm are lined with sturdy spruce hedges planted decades ago, and 93-year-old Voldemar still tends them. In the film, the hedges become a symbol of the Esnas’ long and hard-working lives, as well as an opening for the author to begin his chat with the family. And thus, life unfolds in general, with all its joys and sorrows.
