Awakening

Awakening (1990)

Äratus

It is the night of March 25, 1949. A full moon hangs over Estonia. Endless rows of cattle cars are waiting to transport thousands of Estonian families, asleep in their homes, to Siberia. The Stalinist regime is ready to treat people like animals.

Date of release
1990-02-22
TMDB
5.6 / 10 (5)
Runtime
1h 47m
Genres
Drama, History
Director
Jüri Sillart

Casting

Interesting facts

Äratus is a 1989 Estonian historical drama film directed by Jüri Sillart.

Production

The manuscript of the film was written by writer and playwright Rein Saluri and presented to Tallinnfilm editor Tiina Lokk in late 1986 or early 1987. Lokk liked the manuscript, but was initially dissuaded by other employees at Tallinnfilm from pursuing the project. In 1989, the editorial board at Tallinnfilm granted Lokk permission to turn the manuscript into a film.

The filmmakers later recounted that they were surprised that it was not difficult to make a film about the deportations during the end of the Soviet era. Russian conscripts were even hired from their military base at Tapa as extras in the film. When the film was completed, Lokk, Sillart, and Saluri took the film in a taxi to the All-Union Cinema Committee in Moscow for review.

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

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