The Birdwatcher (also The Bird Watcher or The Observer, ) is an Estonian film directed by Arvo Iho for the Tallinnfilm studio,The Hollywood Reporter, Volume 319, Issues 34-50, p. 64 filmed in 1987 in the northern Urals,Kino, Issues 78-90, p. 27 and first shown in cinemas in 1988. It stars Svetlana Tormahova as a Russian forester and Erik Ruus as a student who meets her while studying ornithology on the island where she works.
Iho had previously worked with Leida Laius on several documentaries, and The Birdwatcher is his solo directorial debut.Mazierska, Ewa; Kristensen, Lars; Naripea, Eva (2013) Postcolonial Approaches to Eastern European Cinema: Portraying Neighbours on Screen, I.B. Tauris, , p. 310
The Birdwatcher won awards at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the Torino Film Festival, and the Rouen Nordic Film Festival."The Bird Watcher", efis.ee. Retrieved 6 January 2019"The Birdwatcher", Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Retrieved 6 January 2019
Plot 24-year old Estonian ornithology student Peeter travels to a small island in the Russian North for fieldwork, where he meets Aleksandra, a middle-aged Russian forester and poacher. They begin a love/hate relationship that leads to tragic consequences when Peeter is killed in a trap set by Aleksandra.Horton, Andrew & Brashinsky, Michael (1992) The Zero Hour: Glasnost and Soviet Cinema in Transition, Princeton University Press, , 237
Cast Svetlana Tormahova – Aleksandra Erik Ruus – Peeter
Reception In the book Postcolonial Approaches to Eastern European Cinema: Portraying Neighbours on Screen, the authors commented on the polarities between the two characters, with Peeter representing mind, law and order, rationality, and idealism, while Aleksandra represents body, criminality, barbarity, and cynicism, which they equated to Edward Said's characterization of the occidental and oriental, with "Russia [functioning] to a considerable degree as a negative model against which Estonian 'Westernness' is constructed", and their affair "symbolic of the complicated relationship between Russia and the Baltic countries it subjugated to its power".
Awards Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic), 1988, FIPRESCI prize for best debut film"The Birdwatcher", sky.com. Retrieved 6 January 2019 Torino Film Festival (Italy), 1989, Jury Special Award Rouen Nordic Film Festival (France), 1990, Grand Prix
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