The districts of soviet block houses are still the huge problem both for city architects as well as society. On the one hand it is being contemplated what does it mean to live there, what is the future of these districts and what is their social status. On the other hand, contemporary city planning is still surprising as newly built houses quite often have even worse quality and appearance compared to the soviet ones, there are no recreational zones being planned or even any landscape around them at all.
This impact on one's self-identification, personal and social relations is being analyzed in Veiko Õunpuu "Autumn Ball" (2007), freely based on the same titled novel (1979) by popular Estonian writer Mati Unt. Movie shows us lives of 5 random, almost unrelated with each other people and no special story is being told. The most important here is to trace loneliness, hopelessness, sadness, inhospitality Which is tightly connected to the one thing relating all the main characters – soviet block district.
Estonians can recognize the exact district of Lasnamäe in the movie, while others can easily relate this district to some of their own city, but finally neither exact place, nor exact time here is important. Time of Unt's novel is seventies, place – Mustamäe district (while Lasnamäe hasn't been built yet). As the movie is freely based on the novel, we can find some differences, for example, in the novel, opposite to the movie, architect sees the district in the positive and optimistic light. In the novel time block houses were the only and quite alluring escape from sharing one flat with unknown people or slums, for some it was even a prestigious place to live in and at least they had a better infrastructure (with parks and other recreational places while now all the empty space between block houses is used for malls and parking lots). However, finally the idea of this kind of district as a lonely and disconnecting from any social relations place is kept both in the novel and in the movie.
Characters represent different social groups, their district is not a closed ghetto for the poor. Young architect whose relationship with a girlfriend is based on boredom, writer who drinks alcohol and stalks his ex more often than writes something, immigrant Finnish barber, lonely worker-class mother whose only close person is her young-aged daughter, the Don Juan cloakroom attender constantly turned down by women because of his low social class.
The place of the story is shown as closed and without hope to escape it. Camera never leaves for the old town or other districts. The kindergarten is paled not only by a metal fence, but also the same high blocks, that are hiding any patch of the sky. For the closing shoots of the scenes director usually chooses a wide view: characters are getting deeper into the inhospitable huge jungle of block houses. The only landscape around is wastelands full of waste. The important motive of waste is repeated several times: while stalking his ex-girlfriend writer steps onto the garbage box to see her window better, driving drunk he hits the same boxes with a car (even if he his first intention was to drive into the tree, but unfortunately there's no tree at all!).
But most importantly there's no sense of safety, which is impossible if you don't know your neighbors, if you don't say "Hi" to them, or simply when you don't have a nice environment, lighting in the night and a feeling that there's someone taking care of you. No one trusts each other, the communication is minimal and suspicious, and of course no community and attention to each other. In one of the last scenes cloakroom attender drags out a drunk customer from the restaurant and right there in the open wasteland he is beaten to death, but this incident stays unnoticed. In this indifferent environment a girl can be kidnapped in the daylight and teachers eyes and no one will give a way on a narrow pavement to a disabled in a wheelchair. The only way to feel real contact here is sex. It is the only moment when people are able to get closer and feel a short flash of happiness. Besides that people are trying to forget their loneliness and miserableness in the superficial parties, with a lot of alcohol, or in the better world offered by television.
The movie can be and is criticized for being totally not original, every scene is said to have been seen already in other European movies. Might be, but still it perfectly represents big problems of city planning and social sphere, which are still present in districts like this. Landscape and environment is important and let this movie remind it to everyone who seem to forget it one more time.
This impact on one's self-identification, personal and social relations is being analyzed in Veiko Õunpuu "Autumn Ball" (2007), freely based on the same titled novel (1979) by popular Estonian writer Mati Unt. Movie shows us lives of 5 random, almost unrelated with each other people and no special story is being told. The most important here is to trace loneliness, hopelessness, sadness, inhospitality Which is tightly connected to the one thing relating all the main characters – soviet block district.
Estonians can recognize the exact district of Lasnamäe in the movie, while others can easily relate this district to some of their own city, but finally neither exact place, nor exact time here is important. Time of Unt's novel is seventies, place – Mustamäe district (while Lasnamäe hasn't been built yet). As the movie is freely based on the novel, we can find some differences, for example, in the novel, opposite to the movie, architect sees the district in the positive and optimistic light. In the novel time block houses were the only and quite alluring escape from sharing one flat with unknown people or slums, for some it was even a prestigious place to live in and at least they had a better infrastructure (with parks and other recreational places while now all the empty space between block houses is used for malls and parking lots). However, finally the idea of this kind of district as a lonely and disconnecting from any social relations place is kept both in the novel and in the movie.
Characters represent different social groups, their district is not a closed ghetto for the poor. Young architect whose relationship with a girlfriend is based on boredom, writer who drinks alcohol and stalks his ex more often than writes something, immigrant Finnish barber, lonely worker-class mother whose only close person is her young-aged daughter, the Don Juan cloakroom attender constantly turned down by women because of his low social class.
The place of the story is shown as closed and without hope to escape it. Camera never leaves for the old town or other districts. The kindergarten is paled not only by a metal fence, but also the same high blocks, that are hiding any patch of the sky. For the closing shoots of the scenes director usually chooses a wide view: characters are getting deeper into the inhospitable huge jungle of block houses. The only landscape around is wastelands full of waste. The important motive of waste is repeated several times: while stalking his ex-girlfriend writer steps onto the garbage box to see her window better, driving drunk he hits the same boxes with a car (even if he his first intention was to drive into the tree, but unfortunately there's no tree at all!).
But most importantly there's no sense of safety, which is impossible if you don't know your neighbors, if you don't say "Hi" to them, or simply when you don't have a nice environment, lighting in the night and a feeling that there's someone taking care of you. No one trusts each other, the communication is minimal and suspicious, and of course no community and attention to each other. In one of the last scenes cloakroom attender drags out a drunk customer from the restaurant and right there in the open wasteland he is beaten to death, but this incident stays unnoticed. In this indifferent environment a girl can be kidnapped in the daylight and teachers eyes and no one will give a way on a narrow pavement to a disabled in a wheelchair. The only way to feel real contact here is sex. It is the only moment when people are able to get closer and feel a short flash of happiness. Besides that people are trying to forget their loneliness and miserableness in the superficial parties, with a lot of alcohol, or in the better world offered by television.
The movie can be and is criticized for being totally not original, every scene is said to have been seen already in other European movies. Might be, but still it perfectly represents big problems of city planning and social sphere, which are still present in districts like this. Landscape and environment is important and let this movie remind it to everyone who seem to forget it one more time.