'Rehepapp' shoot begins
The filming of "Rehepapp" (or "Jesus's Blood and Red Currants"), based on Andrus Kivirähk's novel with the same name, started in Tallinn on Saturday.
The film is directed by Rainer Sarnet and produced by Katrin Kissa. It is a combination of dark humor, romance and fantasy.
The story is set in a pagan Estonian village where werewolves, the plague, and spirits roam. The film brings together Estonian pagan and European Christian mythologies. The main character of the film is a young farm girl named Liina, who is hopelessly in love with a village boy named Hans but the main theme, the makers say, is the soul - longing for a soul, selling it, and living without it.
The film is shot in black and white in two parts. Most of the material will be shot in February and March in a number of locations all over Estonia.
The film will feature professional actors along with a host of regular people. In the lead roles star Arvo Kukumägi, Jörgen Liik, Rea Lest, Taavi Eelmaa, Katariina Unt, Meelis Rämmeld and Jaan Tooming.
The film is produced by Homeless Bob Productions, in cooperation with Netherlands, Germany and Poland. It has been partly funded by the Estonian Film Institute, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, and the EU. The crowd-sourcing appeal in hooandja.ee also amassed more than 10,000 euros.
The film is based on Andrus Kivirähk best-seller "Old Barny, or November", which provides an account of the life of a nameless village during the month of November of an unknown year. The novel makes grotesque use of folktale plots and motifs. It has been translated to Finnish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Latvian, Russian and French.