"Colourful Dreams" / "Smile at Last", Estonian Film Institute

Genre: Fiction
Content: Colourful Dreams(1974) is an extraordinary film in many ways. A visually and conceptually timeless masterpiece that shows, through the eyes of five-year-old Kati, the possibility of a better and more natural way of life within the oppressive censorship of Soviet Estonia. Based on a simple children's film script, this nearly entirely improvised work has a range of meaningful interpretations that increase with each viewing, as the creators managed to capture something so pure and candidly human, thereby completely confusing the artistic censors of the Soviet era. Avant-garde both in its time and even today, because it’s hardly common for Estonian films to use colours as characters in the storyline nor be overly experimental-improvisational. Colourful Dreams was restored in 2024 with the support of “A Season of Classic Films.” Smile at Last(1985) is one of the first films in Estonia that was openly critical about the contemporary society back then. It is a story about youngsters who grow up without a family, according to their own laws and principles. The restoration of the film was carried out by Locomotive Classics (Latvia). Smile at Last was part of Berlinale Classics 2025.
Year: 1974
Country: Estonia
Date: 22 October, 16:15