The Wolf of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Has Howled its Pack for The 27th Time
The long awaited film festival has finally begun and emotions are rising high. All film enthusiasts gathered at Alexela Concert Hall to celebrate the opening ceremony of the Black Nights Film festival (PÖFF27) on the night of the 3rd of November.
The evening kicked off with drinks reception courtesy of Campari followed by an official opening ceremony. Once sat in a grand concert hall, guests were presented with a visual art project from Banksy called Murals. Using 3D scan technology and clever editing and voiceover acting, the installation places the viewers face to face with war devastations in Ukraine. Banksy graffiti commemorating individuals whose lives were sadly lost due to Russia’s military actions. The nine-minute installation film by Banksy was premiered at Cannes 2023, and confronts the viewer with the war in Ukraine through Banksy’s paintings on destroyed buildings in the residential areas. “This is our letter to the Ukrainians, to our friends and colleagues, to the people whose bombed-out homes we scanned, to the heroes fighting in the trenches today – we remember everything and we won’t be silent,” say project authors Artem Ivanenko, Alex Topaller and Dan Shapiro.
After some considerable howling by the audience to imitate the howling of PÖFF’s official mascot wolf calling upon its pack, the ceremony was followed by the festival’s opening film ‘The Guardians Of The Formula’ (dir. Dragan Bjelogrlić) the plot of which is based on Goran Milašinović’s book The Vinča Incident and has received numerous awards including the prestigious Variety Critics’ Award at the Locarno Film Festival this summer. The film which is co-produced by Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia discusses the less known involvement of Yugoslavia in the Cold War.
Additionally, The Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Rein Rannap. Rannap is a prolific Estonian composer and pianist, who is known for his controversial creative palette. All Estonians admire his genius for doing cross-overs with pop and classical music genres.
Bruno O’Ya Stipend for Internationally Acknowledged Estonian Talent was awarded to Maarja Johanna Mägi. She is known for her role in the film Apothecary Melchior. For the first time, the 1000€ stipend is accompanied by a 5 day trip to Kraków. “I’m really looking forward to it,” thanked the laureate in her acceptance video.
Bruno O’ya was a Estonian renowned actor, musician and athlete. He is most known for his role in a Vytautas Žalakevićiuse film Nobody Wanted to Die.
This year’s programme is made of 185 featured films from 73 different countries
Editor in Chief of Ikon London Magazine, journalist, film producer and founder of The DAFTA Film Awards (The DAFTAs).
