Do you plan to die in the course of the film? Probably YES, if it would convince the Estonian Film Institute!

Nobody will support a manifest film about three old losers if even critic Tristan Priimägi feels no need to write about suffering, marginalised, forgotten authors in his book “101 Estonian Films”. Producer of “Stairway to Heaven” Manfred Vainokivi makes his own simple films.

Small, personal, honest experiment on a minimalist budget is edited from 12 years of nostalgic archival footage and ironical pranks. Mostly it is Manfred behind the camera. He follows Kristjan’s encounters and drunken conversations with the self-proclaimed cinema pioneer Eedi. Chess master Eedi can barely walk and can’t hear, but bitterly scorns Kristjan for filmmaking. Unstoppable dreamer Kristjan continues to imagine a long-postponed film about the painter Jüri Arrak with never-ending hope to leave a mark in Estonian culture.

Edvinas Pukšta