A taste of freedom, heavy metal, flirting, drinking, and punk spirit among the USSR’s most westernised youth.

Summer 1987. Crickets chirp, barbed wire marks the borders of Soviet Estonia and the blue-black-white flag is still banned. Freedom feels distant, but a younger generation is already testing the limits.

Seventeen-year-old Mihkel sets off with his heavy metal band to play their first major music festival and catch the attention of foreign producers. His friend and rival Hendrik, whose own band has just broken up, joins the venture. To Mihkel’s dismay, Hendrik also brings his new girlfriend Liisa, who happens to be Mihkel’s dream girl.

Fuelled by bravado, alcohol, and rock music, their punk-rock revolt erupts into street fights, friendly rivalries and clashes with the absurdities of late-Soviet Estonia. Music opens doors, friendships and ambitions collide, and youthful rebellion unfolds against censorship and a crumbling regime, while quieter acts of resistance are already paving the way towards independence.

Based on musician Mihkel Raud’s bestselling book, Jaak Kilmi’s lively, funny and nostalgic dramedy is Estonia’s playful answer to the Lithuanian classic “Children from the Hotel America”.

Edvinas Pukšta