In the Crosswind
Risttuules
Martti Helde
14 June 1941, Estonian families are chased out of their homes on the orders of Stalin. Erna, a young mother, is sent to Siberia with her little daughter, far from her husband. For 15 years she wrote to him, telling him of fear, hunger, loneliness, without ever losing hope of seeing him again.Crosswind portrays these letters in a unique way.
With : Laura Peterson, Tarmo Song, Mitr Preegel, Ingrid Isotamm
Screenplay : Martti Helde
Image : Erik Pollumaa
Sound : Janne Laine
Music : Part Uusberg
Editing : Liis Nimik
Screenplay : Martti Helde
Image : Erik Pollumaa
Sound : Janne Laine
Music : Part Uusberg
Editing : Liis Nimik
Production : Allfilm, Saue 11, 10612 Tallinn, Estonie / Tél. : +372 672 9070/ Email :allfilm@allfilm.ee
Distribution: ARP Sélection, Michèle Halberstadt, 13 rue Jean Mermoz, 75008Paris, France / Tél. : +33 1 56 69 26 00 / Email :
Distribution: ARP Sélection, Michèle Halberstadt, 13 rue Jean Mermoz, 75008Paris, France / Tél. : +33 1 56 69 26 00 / Email :
Martti Helde was born in Tallinn, Estonia. He graduated from the Baltic Film and Media School of the University of Tallinn and is continuing his studies at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. His short films are Päev, mil ma kasvasin and Külm on. Crosswind is his first feature.
There are no films, no documentaries on the camps in Siberia, no photos either, because the Russians, unlike the Germans, did not keep archives. So I spent a year reading all the existing biographical statements on the subject, meeting survivors who were ready to speak. I delved into the archives and this is where I could read the letters that Erna wrote, but never sent because she did not know where her husband was. The miracle is that she kept her letters. Reading her letters, the descriptions of time, the way she explains things just for herself, that time stopped in Siberia, and that her only reality was the memories that she had of the past, and reading this passage I said to myself: ‘OK, in this case I will film what she describes. I will freeze time, so that the audience can feel exactly what she describes."
There are no films, no documentaries on the camps in Siberia, no photos either, because the Russians, unlike the Germans, did not keep archives. So I spent a year reading all the existing biographical statements on the subject, meeting survivors who were ready to speak. I delved into the archives and this is where I could read the letters that Erna wrote, but never sent because she did not know where her husband was. The miracle is that she kept her letters. Reading her letters, the descriptions of time, the way she explains things just for herself, that time stopped in Siberia, and that her only reality was the memories that she had of the past, and reading this passage I said to myself: ‘OK, in this case I will film what she describes. I will freeze time, so that the audience can feel exactly what she describes."