Marko Raat
8 Views of Lake Biwa
Biwa järve 8 nägu
EE
2024, 126', et
Age 12+

 

Eight viewpoints and the magical, mystery-dispersing surface of Lake Peipus. Keeping their voice down to a whisper, local fishermen say the shimmering lake is supernatural – it can take lives, and it can save lives. These very waters will bring about tragedy, leaving only a few survivors. As passions surge along with love  and psyches stirred by the summer breeze, we glide through the lives of the villagers – a fractured community trying to recover by embracing their sexuality and cultivating a practice of silence. All of a sudden, an Estonian border lake reaches out towards another culture, connecting with Lake Biwa in Japan, thousands of kilometres away, and everything seems to be one, inseparable. Here, everyone is searching for something they can never find.

Following the Japanese eight-panel painting tradition that originated in ancient China, the mystical story unfolds across an equal number of episodes, drawing the viewer ever deeper. Referred to as the magical universe of Estonian director Raat (known for The Snow Queen (2010)), this symbol-laden drama that premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam brings Estonia closer to Japan, the West to the East, the real to the surreal, the visible to the intuited, the logical to the irrational. In this Brechtian, twisted puzzle, its vibes echoing the brilliant The Sweet Hereafter (1997) by Atom Egoyan, the scenes are brimming with existential melancholy, rooted in geography and ancient wisdom. The depicted fishing community, full of sin and living without morals, comes straight from fairy tales deeply embedded in the heritage of European nations.