Kristjan Svirgsden :: Szczecin Film Festival 2020

Kristjan Svirgsden

About the artist

Kristjan Svirgsden was born in 1954, Tallinn, Estonia. Received BA degree from Tallinn University. He worked at Estonian Television as a cameraman and director. Since 1993 Svirgsden has been a freelancer. Svirgsden´s first film “Sensitivity” (1985) depicted Soviet militiaman like an average person whose hobby was poetry. “Sensitivity” was awarded at Estonian Film Festival. “Greening Kunda” (1997) was a documentary about Soviet time economy growing into capitalism in Estonian dusty cement town Kunda for BBC and Finnish TV- 2. The Film was sold to 128 countries. Svirgsden´s main interest is human nature. Currently Svirgsden is working on a documentary about Estonian Singing Revolution hero Heinz Valk. It is a story about cartoonist, who found a new role on the barricades.

Filmography:

Greening Kunda (1997)

Sensitivity (1985)

Films

Serious man / Tõsise näoga mees, 28'

“Mental work is hard shit”, says the farmer, painter and writer Jüri Jürna, who is slowly making a name for himself with exhibitions and in the publishing world. We get to know this idiosyncratic but likeable older gentleman, with his pictures and his opinions. – “Let’s blow these banks up.” – The economic situation in rural Estonia is desolate. Jürna is a recluse, living in extremely modest circumstances, but at least he is his own master. And to improve his concentration this earnest septuagenarian, who often laughs nonetheless, rides a motocross motorbike.