When there’s snow on the ground and a slate sky above, my thoughts turn to the greyscale cinematography of Estonian director Veiko Õunpuu.
Õunpuu (‘Apple tree’ in Estonian) is a documentarian of the ordinary lives of invisible people. In 2007 he released his first feature, Sügisball (Autumn Ball), a bleak but beautiful study of the struggles of life in the concrete confines of a Soviet-era suburb in Tallinn.
That film won him the Orizzonti Prize at the Venice International Film Festival, and established him as the cinema laureate of Estonia, a tiny and proud nation with a small but dedicated film industry that produces at least one gem a year.
Õunpuu confirmed his reputation with his second film, The Temptation of St. Tony, a somber look at the unraveling life of an ordinary man as he deals with a series of moral crises. The Temptation of St. Tony was recently selected to appear at the Sundance Film Festival, which begins in Utah on January 21, where it will screen as part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.
As a post-script, in addition to his cinematography, Õunpuu is particularly deft at his soundtrack selection. That moving ballad playing behind the Sügisball trailer is the song Naer by the Estonian band Virmalised, while the Temptation trailer features a haunting version of the folk song Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child.
