People Pleaser (2019)

A young curator Maria Salu (Jaanika Arum) is about to host her first exhibition in the freshly owned gallery. Although the opening is in a week she still hasn’t received the works of Jaanus Kalm (Aarne Piigert), a senior painter that used to be her university professor years ago. Maria is preparing the gallery space while trying to reach Jaanus with no result. She decides to pay a visit to Jaanus’ art dealer Edgar (Meelis Rämmeld) that has worked with the artist for years. They take Edgar’s car to Jaanus’ house outside of the city hoping to find the man. There is tension between them that seems to be caused by their rivalry over exhibiting Jaanus’ works. Having reached the house they look for the artist but the place seems to be empty. Edgar is on the phone with his assistant that is taking care of his opening night preparations for his exhibition. They start exploring the house and something feels quite not right when Maria comes across some peculiar objects, among everything else just one of Jaanus’ recent paintings. A university student Katariina (Maria Luiga) that helps Jaanus with cleaning his studio and home, enters the house. She gives Maria hope that the artist will be back home soon but Edgar is getting rushed to return to his gallery. Getting worried that Edgar will want to leave without them getting more information about Jaanus’ paintings, Maria locks the keys inside Edgar’s car and pretends not to know any of it. Being stuck in the house now, feelings of suspicion and unease come up between Maria and Katariina. Finally they come across a letter from Jaanus uncovering the mystery behind the artist and his works. All the little clues from the house come together now. A few days after the exhibition is open to public but in a completely different form than planned by either Maria or Jaanus himself.