Synopsis

At first sight Lasnamäe looks dull, petty and insignificant. The enormous prefab housing estate in the northeast of Tallinn shares its fate with many suburban settlements in the territories of the former Soviet Union. Anthill centres on a not less drearily seeming parking block. However, appearances deceive. For the five-storied concrete colossus doesn’t only serve as parking area for vehicles. Quite a few of the 700 garage-boxes have been taken over by the quarter’s inhabitants who turned them into their own personal little empires. The complex is bursting with life, which is why the comparison to an anthill is well justified. Some garages are used as stores, others as mechanical workshops. There are even an animal ambulance, a dance café and a private sauna. Many stories, great and small, tragic and amusing, await you right around the corner. With a sophisticated combination of humorous visual imagery and great sensitivity, director Vladimir Loginov invites the audience to immerse into a fantastic world, where there is sometimes still a slight trace of Soviet Union noticeable. As a matter of course, the documentary neither sinks into nostalgic glorification nor into sensation seeking voyeurism, but gives rather the expression of a gentle and benign glance over the people’s shoulders at their various passions.

Guests

Vladimir Loginov

Vladimir Loginov
Director Anthill
In Vienna: October 2-5