Come Back, Lumumba

Colour, 35 mm
Estonia, 1992, 78 min
Section: Baltic Films

Synopsis

The young people in the film haven’t experienced the horrors of war, and the word hero hardly means a thing. It’s the sixties, the Soviet Union is fighting to free (at least) Africans, and our young Estonians are trying to get along as best they can. After school they play in the surrounding forest and along the river; in the evening they go to the local movie theatre. Their path toward a bright tomorrow is tediouslygrey. A new cultural coordinator and her orphaned nephew, named after the famous African freedom fighter Lumumba, arrive in the sleepy little Estonian town. The rather wilful newcomer makes friends with Elsa and with Rein, whose mother died recently. Rein’s father cannot cope with the sudden emptiness, and because the new kid’s Aunt Aurora doesn’t have anybody either, the trio tries to get the two adults together. But adolescence isn’t easy, and the two boys have their first encounter with the power and pain lurking in human emotion – in friendship, in first love, and in their first encounter with death….

About the director

Aare  Tilk studied education and theatre in Tallinn, film direction in Moscow, and film production at Los Angeles’ American Film Institute in 2001. He has shot several documentaries, worked in television in Estonia (e.g. Giordano, The Fish Day, The Flirt, Febris) and worked as assistant director to Maximilian Schell on Candles in the Dark (1995). During a study stay in Los Angeles he shot the shorts The Wall, Lebanon Valley and Boris, the latter awarded at several festivals. He represents the Baltics in the European Federation of Film Directors (FERA). Come Back, Lumumba (1992) was screened at a number of festivals (Berlin, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and others).