A poetic documentary essay about war, fears and solidarity based on broadcast videos of military parades which enter into a dialogue with deeply introspective texts by the poet Sveta Grigorjeva.

Located in the heart of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, the Hippodrome used to be the centre of entertainment for all its neighbouring countries. For nearly 100 years, it has lured visitors with bets and races, and the chance to try their luck with the totalizator. All that remains today of this majestic racecourse is a lonely horse stable. Now it is more of a social club than a prestigious racetrack. Animal lovers and sports fans still meet here despite the poor conditions. Bizarre parties and engagement photo sessions are held at the Hippodrome, and this is where the best Swedish racehorses are still trained. This hypnotic black and white film is an ode to a disappearing era and a unique subculture in a place soon to be demolished to make way for yet another brand new office building complex in the city’s never-ending triumphal march of business-oriented real estate development.

For nearly twenty years now one small Estonian town has organised a Ukrainian-themed fair, during which a beauty contest is held. This observational film explores whether beauty can be an object of competition, and how we should understand the phenomenon of beauty contests in the modern day.

ANTHILL is a portrait of a giant garage located in the largest Soviet blockhouse area of Tallinn. Here 700 garage box owners form an extraordinary men’s club and vary from those who just keep their cars to those who adapt their boxes for living. The complex is a unique biosphere with the existence of private saunas, a restaurant, an animal clinic and other artifacts of life stuck in time 20 years back.

Three women, unrelated to each other, live their usual day. Anya is getting ready for her prom. Lena spends her day at work managing plumbers and janitors. Pensioner Lyudmila preaches the Word of God. Only subtle visual parallels connect the heroines of the film. They are somewhat similar to each other. An action begun by one seems to be completed by another. Step by step, from dawn to dusk, from youth to old age. And a lived day turns into a lived life.

From the author and the protagonist: “I feel distancing. I feel alienated. I feel, and it is a bitter fact for me, that despite all my efforts, one might say, pseudo-achievements, I am still an alien body, I am still not fully accepted, understood, not fully accepted element in Estonian society. And it hurts me."

This film is an attempt to turn one's back on the global and look in the mirror. Try to see ourselves there, to enjoy the little things that surround us. Consider the details that were invisible. Consider and smile.