Juhan Liiv, a struggling poet and an unlikely detective, solves gruesome murder cases in Estonia, the Wild West of the crumbling Russian Empire in the 1890s. Investigations take him to miserable dwellings of the local Estonian peasants, luxurious castles of German nobility that have sworn allegiance to the Czar, and to the depths of ancient forests where witchcraft is still practiced. Juhan is fighting crime and his own inner demons. He is considered mad and pronounced crazy. But by standing for justice and truth, at the end of the day, he is the sanest of them all.
Cinematography
Estonian forests look genuinely cursed. Gorgeous misery.
Acting
Pääru Oja's unhinged gentleness is magnetic.
Production
Period detail captures empire's rot without prestige gloss.
Director
Jaak Kilmi
Pääru Oja
Juhan Liiv
Rain Simmul
Police Master Peeter
Karol Kuntsel
Otto
Kersti Heinloo
Liise
Peeter Tammearu
Innkeeper
Riho Kütsar
Wrestler Mill
Ago Anderson
Wrestler Kõiv
Andres Mähar
Ruler of the Manor
Alice Siil
Mari
Tarmo Tagamets
Blacksmith Jürka
Meelis Rämmeld
Madjus
Veiko Jänes
Devil
Lena Barbara Luhse
Juula
Indrek Sammul
Publisher
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Juhan Liiv was a real Estonian poet who died in poverty in 1913; the film reimagines his actual struggles with mental illness as noir detective fiction.
Director Jaak Kilmi previously made documentaries about Estonian history, explaining the obsessive period detail in peasant dwellings.
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