The Shadow
Vari
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Estonia (2024)
Crime, History, Thriller | Estonian with English Subtitles | 90 minDirected by: Jaak Kilmi
In Person: Saturday, March 1, 5:45 pm
Q&A session with the filmmakers to follow screening.
Ticket holders of The Shadow are invited to join us for a reception prior to the screening: 4:45pm -5:45pm
Virtual: March 3-24
Streaming in North America
Juhan Liiv, a struggling poet and an unlikely detective suffering from the early stages of schizophrenia, solves gruesome murder cases in Estonia in the 1890s under the shadow of the tyrannical Russian Empire.
Few Estonians know the touching song that is always performed at the song festivals, “Ta lendab mesipuu poole/ He flies towards the beehive…” But few people know the author of the lyrics, Juhan Liiv, a sensitive poet traumatized by mental illness who lived in tsarist Estonia.
Pääru Oja plays the tormented Liiv who is trying to unravel a murder mystery while battling his own unraveling mind.
The gripping fictional film, written by Indrek Hargla, also known for the Melchior series, Vari / The Shadow, will have its North America premier at the BBFF on Saturday, March 1, 2025.