London’s The Calvert Journal published a list of the five new east films to look for in 2016. Among these most anticipated films is Rainer Sarnet’s November (working title Jesus’s Blood and Red Currants), a coproduction between Homeless Bob Production (EST), PRPL (HOL) and Opus Film (POL).
Carmen Gray of The Calvert Journal writes:
“Rainer Sarnet’s Dostoevsky adaptation The Idiot was a film of bold atmospheric flair, which brought a punkish edge to its energetic theatricality and cathedral-gloom setting. Five years on, the Estonian director is preparing another take on a literary classic, reconstructing Estonian fairytales through black comedy in November, a film based on Andrus Kivirähk’s novel Rehepapp in which werewolves, the plague and spirits move through a pagan village. In order to make it through the harsh winter, stealing has become a way of life for the residents, but the greedy pragmatism of this has lodged a numbness deep inside them.
“Far from being just a satire about stealing, the story touches something much more primordial,” Sarnet told The Calvert Journal, adding that he was attracted by the book’s animism; its “belief that all things have a soul”. He said: “November is no museum folklore, but a description of black conscience, and the love story in it is more about a soul yearning to escape from that kind of material world.”
Also on board is gifted cinematographer Mart Taniel. Black-and-white gloom streaked with light is the vision for the muddy farmyards, ramshackle buildings and winter-bare woods of the film, influenced by photographer Johannes Pääsuke’s early 20th-century photography. It’s set to be ready for November — so could premiere at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival.”
