Film Director and Essayist Named Opinion Leader of the Year
The daily Postimees announced its opinion leader of the year, picking film director and essayist Ilmar Raag for the honor.
According to Neeme Korv, the head of the daily’s opinion section, Raag is a notable social thinker and a brilliant essayist who could be considered overdue for the prize, uudised.err.ee reported today.
Korv listed Raag’s four-part exploration of the self-perception of Estonians as a good example of him tackling important issues and trying to come up with answers to painful questions.
Raag has directed several films and his movies “Klass” (“The Class”), “Naine Pariisis” (A Woman in Paris) and “Kertu” have enjoyed domestic and some international success. He recently had to quit his position as one of the presenters of ERR's cultural program OP!, because as a reserve officer he will be joining the Estonian mission in the Central African Republic.
Previous winners include journalist Tiina Kangro, journalist and foreign policy analyst Edward Lucas, social scientist Marju Lauristin, writer Mihkel Mutt, essayist Enn Soosaar, journalist Erkki Bahovski, historian David Vseviov and economist Andres Arrak.