“New Money is Estonian writer-director-producer Rain Rannu’s fifth feature and a follow-up to his 2023 dramedy Free Money. And it asks a question many would love to have to debate: What would you do if you had 50 million? In this case, it is euros, which amounts to about $58 million at current exchange rates.”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
The film had its international premiere in the Baltic Competition of the 29th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) on Tuesday evening and drew a packed house and much laughter.
Märt Pius and Steffi Pähn return in their Free Money roles as the couple of Taavi and Liisa. Ivo Uukkivi, Elina Masing, Edgar Vunš, and Keith Siilats also feature in the movie from Rannu and Tõnu Hiielaid’s production firm Tallifornia. Baltic Crime is handling sales.
So, what is New Money about? “In a bid to inspire young minds about financial literacy, humble teacher Liisa and modest IT wizard Taavi agree to a tabloid interview. Their openness triggers a barrage of anonymous insults, unwanted offers, and indecent proposals,” plus attracts a con artist, notes a synopsis. “Confused and overwhelmed, Taavi soon regrets the morning he suddenly became a millionaire with 50 million euros in Bitcoin.”
‘New Money’
Rannu and members of the creative team behind New Money shared some funny stories from the shoot, including experiences in Miami, which features prominently in the film.
“It’s not actually a sequel,” the filmmaker explained about the new film’s relationship to Free Money. “But when I made the last one, I really liked those two characters, and I thought that maybe it would be great to spend some more time with them. So I wrote something, sent it to the actors, asked them, ‘Is this a thing? Should we do it?’ And they said: ‘Sure, yeah, absolutely.’ And then it kind of happened. So it was a very organic process.”
Rannu was also asked about co-editing the new feature, sharing: “I really enjoy the process, because in editing, you can make it or break it. And there are so many things that you can do in editing, especially all those micro nuances – what to focus on more, what to focus on less.”
All sorts of headaches result from the couple’s sudden riches, so one key big-picture takeaway was simple for the filmmaker to highlight: “One of the themes of this movie was ‘more money, more problems’,” he concluded.
‘New Money’
Could there be a third film set in the Free Money and New Money universe? “A couple of good ideas are floating around already,” shared Rannu, including two that would tell broader stories of two characters in the new movie.
Watch a trailer for New Money below.