The Little Comrade – Seltsimese laps (2018)

Directed by: Moonika Siimets | 98 minutes | drama | Actors: Helena Maria Reisner, Tambet Tuisk, Yuliya Aug, Juhan Ulfsak, ​​Maria Avdjushko, Argo Aadli, Indrek Taalmaa, Maarja Jakobson, Aarne Soro, Kadri Rämmeld, Tarmo Song, Anna Sergejeva, Hilje Murel, Carmen Mikiver, Sandra Uusberg

‘The Little Comrade’ is a country drama with rolling wheat fields, flat caps, hand washing, children clutching teddy bears when necessary, and loud background noises, even if it’s footsteps or doors. Would have been nice to be a little more subtle. The pursuit of effects is not necessary when there is story-related suffering. And there is that suffering, in the form of a disrupted family: a mother (Eva Koldits) who is deported to the Gulag in Stalin’s Soviet Empire of the 1950s.

This film by the Estonian thirty-something Moonika Siimets, based on the autobiographical works of compatriot Leelo Tungal, has a modern tempo, the actors have a 21st-century look, the tones are matte and soft; here and there a harp pluck or a string is heard. Siimets does not really draw a clear line in terms of depth or historicity. Also in terms of plot development, it goes stiffly towards the right emotions. They will come, but at the very end, under a visually mild glow.

What also doesn’t help is that the child actress on duty (Helena Marie Reisner) looks quite instructed, making the heart of the film difficult to beat. And that must be the intention. Six-year-old Leelo dissociates like a child, and it is her gaze of wonder that guides us through adult events – often from behind a door. Visually impeccable and justifiable from film traditions, but where are we after an hour and a half?

Not much further as a viewer: Leelo is not developing; Siimets doesn’t care much for the story: ‘The Little Comrade’ is too flat and too sweet. Cute girl who often looks at the ground and talks to trees – it’s not nice to miss your mother either; further family singing, fooling around with father (Tambet Tuisk), peeling houses, and boy scouts singing communist battle songs across green meadows. Rather a good non-fiction work to interpret the cruel history.