The Cinematheque

Estonia

Estonian filmmaker Jaak Kilmi has made a career plumbing the comic-side of his country’s Soviet past, from personal documentaries (the award-winning Disco and Atomic War) to period dramas (Revolution of Pigs). His latest, an ​’80s-set action comedy, follows three Estonian dreamers who flee the Soviet Union in search of the suave ​“free world” as peddled on American TV shows like Miami Vice and Knight Rider. Welcomed in Sweden as rebellious heroes who broke through the Iron Curtain, they’re soon regarded as run-of-the-mill immigrants, unable to find work, let alone the opulence—posh cars, cool clothes, arm candy—of their aspired-to lifestyle. But a surefire plan is in the works, guaranteed—or so they surmise—to turn a profit in the Western world.