In the Crosswind

(Risttuules)

1hr 27min  |  Estonian  |  Drama, History

Based on a true story, the film recounts the Soviet Holocaust through one woman's letters. Erna is deported to Siberia along with her daughter. Fighting inhuman conditions, she seeks solace in the letters she sends her husband, who has been sent to prison camp.
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Synopsis

14 June 1941. Without warning tens of thousands of people in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were removed from their homes. Without any sort of trial, men faced being sent to prison camps and women and children were deported to Siberia. The aim of this extraordinary operation – carried out on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin – was to purge the Baltic countries of their native inhabitants.

Erna, happily married and the mother of a young daughter, is sent to Siberia. For her, time takes on another dimension. Fighting starvation and humiliation in inhuman conditions, her soul seeks and finds freedom in the letters she sends to her husband who has been sentenced to the prison camp. Even so, the years in Siberia rob Erna of something much more precious than just her youth.

This film is based on a true story and uses extraordinary visual techniques and language to tell the heart-wrenching tale of the fate of thousands of Estonians.

Credits

director: Martti Helde

writer: Martti Helde

producer: Pille Rünk, Piret Tibbo-Hudgins

cast: Laura Peterson, Tarmo Song, Mirt Preegel, Ingrid Isotamm, Einar Hillep

Dir. of Photography: Erik Põllumaa

Editor: Liis Nimik

Sound: Janne Laine

Music: Pärt Uusberg