1944

1944 (2015)

The first casualty of war is truth

The events of the war in 1944, from the Blue Hills to Sõrve Peninsula. Shown through the eyes of Estonian soldiers who had to pick sides and fight against fellow brothers. Choices have to be made, not only by the soldiers, but also by their loved ones.

Date of release
2015-02-20
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (121)
Runtime
1h 40m
Genres
War, Drama
Director
Elmo Nüganen

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: €1.5M
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

1944 is a 2015 Estonian war drama film directed by Elmo Nüganen. The film first premiered in February 2015 in Berlin, Germany, before its release in Estonia and other northern European countries. It was selected as the Estonian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but it was not nominated.

Production

The first part of filming took place from October 2013 till the Easter break of 2014. It then continued at the start of the summer of 2014 where filming also took place at the Sinimäed Hills.

The film was funded by the Estonian Film Institute, the Estonian Ministry of Defence, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and private investments.

Overall 4 original soviet T-34 tanks in running condition were used during the production. One was borrowed from Finland war museum, two from private museums in Finland. The 4th tank was borrowed from Eesti vabadusvõitluse muuseum/Estonian freedom fighting museum. Eagle-eyed viewers can spot, based on the shape of one tank's wheels, that it was made either in 1945 or 1946, when wheel shape got slightly modified compared to the original design.

For battle scenes, three additional tank props were used which were blown up during filming.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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