North Dragon (2007)

Põhja Konn: strange little film based on Estonian fairy tale

There was an Estonian animated film of the same name made in 1959 based on a fairy tale by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, the writer of the Estonian national epic “Kalevipoeg”, and Unt’s film may well be a homage and reinterpretation of the original animation. Whatever Unt intended his film to be, it is a very beautiful little piece to watch. The ambience is dreamy and unreal yet not at all sinister with white and airy backgrounds. The live action scenes between the soldier and the girl are completely silent and the two actors’ movements are floaty and unnatural; the scenes are also filmed in monochrome. Colour intrudes only in the stop-motion animated scenes more than halfway through the piece when the mechanical aristocrats come alive and begin stuffing themselves.

Under Southern Eyes, http://undersoutherneyes.edpinsent.com/pohja-konn-strange-little-film-based-on-estonian-fairy-tale/ (14.01.2015)