Regularly looting from Cannes, Berlin and one more from Venice, Strand Releasing has picked up Estonian director Veiko Ounpuu’s Sugisball – a deadpan like picture that reminds of certain aesthetic and tonal choices from certain Scandi filmmakers. Estonia is not that far off from Finland. Indiewire reports that film is set for a US theatrical premiere on June 3rd at the MoMA and also mentions that Strand’s topper Marcus Hu was told about the film by friend/filmmaker Gregg Araki. Check out the great trailer below.
The film follows the inhabitants of an apartment tower who cope with alienation, loneliness and despair in late Soviet-era Estonia. The young writer, Mati, lurks outside the window of his ex-wife and unsuccessfully approaches other women. August Kask is a barber living a drab life who takes to a little girl, but his approaches are misconstrued as pedophilia. The single mom, Laura, watches a sappy soap opera on TV and pushes away men’s advances because she cannot trust them. Maurer, the architect, thinks about the well-being of humanity, but has forgotten his own wife, who, in turn, looks for solace in the coatroom attendant Theo. Women like Theo, but due to his low social status, they don’t take him seriously. Ultimately, the film is a pitch black comedy about people attempting to overcome isolation.
