Riina Sildos, the movie's Estonian producer, said: "I am very happy that Estonian filmmakers have received such great recognition from our neighbors. This proves once again how closely our two film cultures are intertwined."

"Compartment No.6" was triumphant in best Film, best director (Juho Kuosmanen), and best lead actor (Seidi Haarla), similarly coming out on top in the screenplay (Andris Feldmanis, Livia Ulman and Juho Kuosmanen), cinematographer (JP Passi), make-up artist (Liina Pihel), film-editing (Jussi Rautaniemi) and artwork (Kari Kankaanpää) categories, at the awards, where it had been nominated for a further four categories also.

"Compartment No.6"was inspired by the novel of the same name by Finnish writer Rosa Liksom, herself the winner of Finland's top literary prize in 2011.

The movie was also in the hunt for this year's Oscars and Golden Globes awards, and won the prestigious Grand Prix award at last year's Cannes Film Festival.

Sildos added that future cross-Gulf of Finland movie cooperation will include the premiering of Estonian filmmaker (and former head of ETV) Ilmar Raag's "Erik Kivisüda", which has a Finnish art director in Kari Kankaanpää, plus the move "Must auk" ("Black Hole"), from Moonika Siimets (Estonia), which Jussi Rautaniemi is also working on.

"Compartment No.6" (Finnish: "Hytti nro 6") tells the story of Finnish archaeology student Laura (Seidi Haarla) and her evolving relationship between boorish Russian Vadim (Yuriy Borisov), who share a compartment in a 1,200-mile train journey from Moscow to the Arctic port of Murmansk.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!