To Save A Language (2020)

Indrek Park, a linguist originally from Estonia, has been working with Native American languages for over ten years. The film sees him recording the language of the Mandan tribe, who live in the prairies of North Dakota, on the banks of the Missouri River. The job involves a lot of responsibility, and he is running out of time – his language guide, the 84-year-old Edwin Benson, is the last native speaker of Mandan. Also, Indrek’s plans with Mandan are much bigger than just recording the language for future generations – it has become his mission to revive Mandan, so that it would be used as a native language again. 
There are several factors that threaten the success of the historic language project. So far the tribe has been providing ample financial support for the high-cost programme, but due to the falling prices of oil, the sale of which is a major source of livelihood for the tribe, they might not be able to continue funding the initiative. The highest risk factor is Indrek himself. He is tired of living abroad and wishes to move back home to Estonia to start a family. Will he succeed in both the challenging job of saving a language as well as having a satisfying personal life?