“The 29th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) in Estonia is kicking off on Friday, screening new arthouse discoveries and highlights from the festival circuit of the past year. Festival head Tiina Lokk and her team have lined up world premieres and gems from the Baltic region, along with a selection of”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
Festival head Tiina Lokk and her team have lined up world premieres and gems from the Baltic region, along with a selection of movies from beyond.
Among the titles are some that at first glance sound particularly edgy, offbeat, maybe even outlandish. After all, Lokk likes to shine a spotlight on more challenging fare.
With that in mind, here’s THR‘s look at some of the more unusual-sounding films that PÖFF 2025 will unspool.
Electing Ms. Santa – a woman in Moldova has big political dreams
Doc@PÖFF International Competition
Moldova is in talks to join the European Union, but one woman in a remote village chases her own political ambitions.
‘Electing Ms Santa’
Raisa Răzmeriță’s debut film Electing Ms. Santa is an observational documentary that follows Elena, 42, who organizes community clean-ups, supports lonely elders, and each year dons a Santa Claus costume to bring joy to her neighbors. “But beneath the suit, Elena is driven by ambition and a desire to shake things up,” according to a synopsis. “Her dream? To become mayor.”
Filmed over seven years, the doc shows Elena searching for her place in life. Highlights the PÖFF website: “Facing pressure from her family and resistance from her community, she defies the prescribed roles of mother, daughter, wife, and tradition herself in pursuit of her own happiness and purpose.”
Watch the trailer for Electing Ms. Santa here.
The Baronesses are serving up Hamlet in Brussels
Rebels With a Cause Competition
Not only Ms. Santa has dreams. So do the four grandmothers who decide to perform Hamlet in The Baronesses (Les Baronesses) co-directed by Nabil Ben Yadir and his mother, Mokhtaria Badaoui.
‘The Baronesses’
Ben Yadir returns to the neighborhood, in which his 2009 debut film The Barons (Les Barons) was set, a comedy and love letter to his Brussels neighborhood.
“Fatima lives with her family in Molenbeek, Brussels, waiting patiently for a new home in the Maghreb region,” reads a synopsis for the movie. “When her hopes are dashed, she decides to follow her old dream of performing Shakespeare in a theater.” The Tallinn festival website promises “empowerment, fun and magic realism.”
Scarecrows uncovers the hidden world of animals at Riga International Airport
Doc@PÖFF Baltic Competition
Humans and wildlife share the same runways at the airport in Latvia’s capital Riga, filmmaker Laila Pakalniņa’s new movie shows.
‘Scarecrows’
The creative has shown a knack for the surreal and absurdist in her fiction features, shorts, and documentaries.
“Beneath the roar of jet engines and the rush of passengers, an unassuming team of ‘runway rangers’ wages a constant, high-stakes and sometimes comical battle with nature itself,” reads a festival synopsis of Scarecrows. “Armed with flare guns, nets, and sheer determination, they spend long hours honking horns and chasing rabbits and birds across the runways, even contending with the occasional lost worm.”
Unless you have a plane to catch, check out a look at Scarecrows in the trailer below.
Interior may make you look twice next time you sit down on your couch
First Feature Competition
You may not want to watch this one before going to sleep. After all, a synopsis asks: “Are you really sure you know what happens in your house when you lock the door?”
‘Interior’
The debut feature from Germany’s Pascal Schuh tells the story of Kasimir, a burglar who uses a couch with a secret compartment to break into people’s homes and covertly film their private moments. He makes the recordings for Dr. Liebermann, who watches them in what the PÖFF website describes as “a ritual-like study of human emotions.”
It also calls the film a “voyeuristic cinematic journey that makes the viewer question the thin line between abuse and being abused, morality and empathy, tenderness and the strangeness of human experience.”
With all that said, you might want to get mentally ready before you watch the Interior trailer.
My Family and Other Clowns wants to show us that clowns can also trip up at home
Doc@PÖFF Baltic Competition
Coulrophobics will want to jump straight to the next entry. Others may want to check out this Estonian observational documentary to see if it has the “it” factor – without the “It” factor.
‘My Family and Other Clowns’
“Life is complicated when your parents are world-famous clowns,” reads a synopsis. “For 25 years, world-famous Estonian clowns Haide and Toomas, better known as Piip and Tuut, have brought joy and laughter to children and families across the globe. But behind the face paint and curtain lies a different story. While entertaining thousands, their own children – Emma, Siim, and Anni – have been growing up at home without them.”
Their eldest daughter Emma dreams of following in her parents’ footsteps, but must also care for her autistic brother and her younger sister. And the clown parents grapple with guilt and exhaustion as they try to balance performing and home life.
Stop clowning around and watch the trailer for My Family and Other Clowns below.
18 Holes to Paradise fans the family flames
Main Competition
Ever wanted to see a family-plus-environmental drama? Mozambique-born Portuguese director João Nuno Pinto has got you covered with 18 Holes to Paradisewhich he is bringing to Tallinn’s main feature competition this year. Based on a script by Fernanda Polacow, it follows a family debating what to do with the father’s house. But with a wildfire ravaging the region, the discussion is becoming heated.
’18 Holes to Paradise’
“The region has transformed from a depressed area into a thriving tourist destination. Kisses, hugs, and greetings quickly turn into complaints and reproaches,” notes a synopsis of the movie, whose cast features Margarida Marinho, Beatriz Batarda, Rita Cabaço, Luisa Ortigoso, and Günther Götsch. After all, the house is “a tempting piece of cake, laden with rich family memories. But progress cannot be stopped.”
The Tallinn festival website concludes: “At its core, the film is about the fire – both literal and metaphorical – that is born from predatory thinking, a mindset that continues to dominate and drive us toward an abyss. A vibrant and engaging reflection on the fragility of land, society, and human connection.” And it highlights: “By combining social and environmental concerns with an assured and intimate cinematic approach, the director presents us with a dynamic family drama that could be the story of the whole world.”
For a first taste of how family dysfunction can trump paradise, here is the trailer for 18 Holes to Paradise.
Backstage MadnessKyrgyzstan-style
First Feature Competition
We’d be surprised if you had this one on your cheat sheet of films that creators would surely put together sooner rather than later. But Backstage Madness has arrived, courtesy of director Amanbek Azhymat from Kyrgyzstan.
‘Backstage Madness’
“It’s never too late for an absurd and amusing Kyrgyz slapstick comedy about the incredible hardships of filmmaking,” notes a synopsis on the PÖFF website. “A 70-year-young nameless director still invents various vivid and bizarre characters on an old-fashioned typewriter. … He has heard the word ‘stop’ far too many times while preparing an arthouse festival gem.”
The feature directing debut also features a fledgling producer who orders the director to create something entirely different, with keen investors featured in key roles. PÖFF programmers feel a bit reminded of Adilkhan Yerzhanov, a filmmaker from Kazakhstan, who first made a name for himself with The Owners.
Come for the fight sequences, stay for the dance scenes! Or just check out the trailer for Backstage Madness.
The Megalomaniacs – enough said!
Rebels With a Cause Competition
Spiros Stathoulopoulos’ (Cavewoman, PVC-1) new feature, The Megalomaniacspromises to serve up a healthy portion of subversive satire.
‘The Megalomaniacs’
The movie stars Angeliki Papoulia and Jan Bijvoet in an irreverent story of clay, hubris, desire, and utter chaos, as far as we can tell. “Even a cockatoo joins the madness,” promises (or should it be: warns?) the PÖFF website.
Papoulia portrays Sophia, an archaeologist who is convinced that ancient amphorae can trap echoes of the past via sound waves sealed in clay, waiting to be played back. She meets Bijvoet’s Potter, “a sardonic artisan whose hands speak the language of form, but not of faith,” according to a synopsis. “Their collaboration begins as scholarly curiosity and evolves into a seductive duel of wit, vanity, and power.”
K-Poper is a culture clash movie about a K-pop fan in Iran
Just Anime
Iranian writer Ebrahim Amin will bring his feature directing debut K-Poperco-written with Ali Mohammad Hesamfar, to the Tallinn festival, and its tagline is short and simple: “K-pop meets a conservative household.”
‘K Pop’
The cast of the film features Sareh Bayat, Setayesh Dehghan, Mehdi Hashnemi, and Ali Bagheri.
If you want to know a little bit more about it, the synopsis on the PÖFF website offers additional insight. “A teenage girl from Iran has fallen in love with a popular Korean K-pop singer. She wants to go to Seoul to see him perform, as well as take part in a competition,” it reads. “Although she has been accepted into the competition, her mother is seriously against her going.”
For a first little taste of K-Poperhere is the trailer.