Kratt

Mia (Nora Merivoo) and Kevin (Harri Merivoo) are sent to stay with Grandma (Mari Lili) in the country while their parents are on a retreat. Bored without their smart phones, the children ask their grandmother for a story; she tells them a story she heard from her grandmother, who heard it from *her* grandmother, about the making of a kratt, a servant that will do all its maker's work as ordered. The children are thrilled when they subsequently come upon the Count's journal, a long-lost volume that includes explicit instructions for making a kratt; they immediately do so with the help of twin neighbours, but of course they don't bother to check the instructions for how to undo the creature....

The two leads in this film are played by the children of the film's director, Rasmus Merivoo, but this doesn't seem to be a matter of nepotism as they do quite well as the two bratty, spoiled characters who are, in the end, just little kids after all. The setting of the Estonian countryside is entrancing, especially populated as it is with somewhat eccentric inhabitants and even a sacred forest that is under threat. There may or may not be some sort of commentary on religion underlying the story here; if so, it's rather opaque and it's best to just sit back and enjoy the mayhem. You may never look at pizza quite the same way again!