Spring

Successively occupied by Russians and Germans, Estonia had a brief period of independence between 1920 and 1940, reestablished after the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1991.

Entirely filmed in Estonia and spoken in Estonian, this film, apparently a simple reminiscence of youth, in the times of the German presence (the permanent tension between the Estonian and German student communities is symptomatic), evokes Estonian culture and history, which persist despite the successive occupations, of which, the Soviet one, was still ongoing in 1969.

Beneath the innocence of the vicissitudes of youth, hides an affirmation of Estonia's autonomy, as a nation, culture, language and one day, eventually (it would be in 1991, but that was unpredictable in 1969), as an independent state.