Plot

The Ice That Still Supports Us reflects people's desire to be happy in a rapidly changing world, even as this world is breaking like spring ice.

The film looks at the life of Estonian coastal people on the edge of the ice road through the eyes of the Greek traveler Pytheas, 23 centuries after Pytheas' visit to the land of the Aests. We are watching coastal life from the perspective of curious foreigners and can only imagine that life at the coastal area was not much different thousands of years ago.

The Ice That Still Supports Us takes place on the northern coast of Estonia, where the use of ice roads in winter is a centuries-old tradition. According to it, the ice road is opened every year for cars and pedestrians. But the ice road is like a ghost road - no one knows when and where it will exactly appear. The Ice That Still Supports Us reflects people's desire to be happy in a rapidly changing world, even as this world is breaking like spring ice. The film looks at the life of Estonian coastal people on the edge of the ice road through the eyes of the Greek traveler Pytheas, 23 centuries after Pytheas' visit to the land of the Aests. We are watching coastal life from the perspective of curious foreigners and can only imagine that life at the coastal area was not much different thousands of years ago. The main character of the documentary is Jaanus, the ice road guard, who, lets everybody on the road. The secondary characters include a mayor of a little town, town people and villagers, who all have their own opinion on the matter. From autumn to winter, we see preparations for the construction of the ice road and activities on the ice. Though the ice seems to arise tensions, it melts something in people's hearts and makes them more human, friendlier. The ice makes people happy. The film is a collaboration between Estonia, Czech Republic, Lithuania and the Finland. The film was developed in cooperation with the Archidoc program of the Paris film school La Fémis, supported by the Media Program of the European Union.