The 28th edition of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) sets focus on German cinema and has chosen the world premiere of David Dietl's Long Story Short to open the festival. With the extensive focus programme, the festival celebrates the 70th anniversary of German Films and the 25th anniversary of the Goethe-Institut in Estonia. 

The focus programme comprises 15 new German films and 3 retrospectives, including three world premieres and three international premieres in various competition programmes. The German Focus 2024 is dedicated to the 70th anniversary of German Films and the 25th anniversary of the Goethe-Institut Tallinn. The institute has been PÖFF’s partner and the presenter of German film highlights since 1999. 

The festival opens with the world premiere of Long Story Short, directed by David Dietl. The cast includes German stars such as Laura Tonke and Ronald Zehrfeld. Nikolaj Nikitin, the festival programmer, described the film as follows: “Our German opening film is a feel-good comedy with strong dramatic elements, which works internationally thanks to its high emotional level, terrific cinematography and a joyful, diverse cast. The original title Feste & Freunde translates as Feasts and Friends, which is the theme of the film. Just like in Four Weddings and a Funeral, a group of close friends celebrate parties over an extended period of time. They experience a lot of fun together, but also tragic moments that prove that love and friendship are the most important gifts of all our lives ” 

The managing director of German Films, Simone Baumann, shared her joy about the focus: “The Tallinn Black Nights Festival is very important to us. German Films can already look back on many years of cooperation with the festival. We also greatly value the film festival, as one of the A-festivals, because many German talents have started their international careers here and will hopefully continue to do so in the future. The fact that Germany has now been selected as the Focus Country in the year of our 70th anniversary is a special honour for us. We are delighted that three films from our anniversary retrospective will also be shown here.”

Baumann also pointed out the German films in competition, and the jury president: “German productions in the current competition line-ups have been selected with particular care, such as Ice Aged and With My Open Lungs in the Doc@PÖFF section, or No Dogs Allowed from the First Feature Competition. The fact that the German director Christoph Hochhäusler is also the jury president and will decide the winner in the competition category is another nice connection.” 

Regarding the German Focus, PÖFF’s industry arm Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event will hold two dedicated events at TV-Beats Forum, and a co-producing presentation.  “We are also delighted about the four delegations of producers from various German regions who are taking part in the Baltic Event and representing Germany in the industry section” said Simone Baumann. 

Conrad Doberauer, the director of the Goethe-Institut Tallinn, shared his enthusiasm about the long-term collaboration: "The Goethe-Institut's work contributes to understanding and mutual trust, because cultural work can depict ambivalences and complexities in a special way and initiate dialogue. We are therefore particularly looking forward to this year's German focus of the festival with many films and guests." 

Doberauer mentioned films to be presented and shared recommendations for the festival audience: “This year's selection includes Matthias Glasner's gripping and at the same time hilarious drama Dying; the drama From Hilde, With Love by Andreas Dresen about the resistance group "Red Orchestra" (Rote Kapelle), and the award-winning tragicomedy Sad Jokes by Fabian Stumm. The Just Film programme also includes Frank Büchting's Tomorrow, Somewhere By The Sea. From German documentaries the institute is presenting Andres Veiel's new documentary Riefenstahl. To make German films more accessible, the Goethe-Institut is also showing Milena Aboyan's drama Elaha with audio description for the visually impaired and subtitles for the hearing impaired.

The festival founder and director Tiina Lokk is particularly glad to introduce the German retrospective to the festival audience:  “Alexander Kluge's landmark film Yesterday Girl introduced German new cinema to the world in 1966. The 92-year-old Kluge's work is almost unknown on Estonian screens - that’s why it is important to show such films for educational purposes at film festivals. We will also screen Konrad Wolf's Solo Sunny and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun. All three films have been freshly restored and bring intriguing independent female characters to the screen,” says the director. 

Full list of films: 

- Long Story Short; dir.  David Dietl, World Premiere

- No Dogs Allowed, dir. Steve Bache, World Premiere

- With My Open Lungs, dir. Yana Sad, World Premiere

- Ice Aged, dir. Alexandra Sell, International Premiere

- Protected Men, dir. Irene von Alberti, International Premiere

- Yellow, dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel and Albert Oehlen, International Premiere

- Tomorrow, Somewhere By The Sea, dir. Patrick Büchting


- Dying, dir. Matthias Glasner

- Elaha, dir. Milena Aboyan

- Turning Tables, dir. Angelina Maccarone

- Riefenstahl, dir. Andres Veiel

- 5. September, dir. Tim Fehlbaum

- Sad Jokes, dir. Fabian Stumm

- From Hilde, With Love, dir. Andreas Dresen

-  La Mort Viendra, dir. Christoph Hochhäusler


Restored retrospectives: 

- Yesterday Girl, dir. Alexander Kluge

- The Marriage of Maria Braun, dir.  Rainer Werner Fassbinder

- Solo Sunny, dir. Konrad Wolf


The 28th edition of PÖFF l will take place from the 8th until the 24th of November, while the festival’s industry platform Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event will run from 14th until the 22nd of November. 

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival with Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event and with the two sub-festivals, Just Film and PÖFF Shorts, has grown into one of the biggest film festivals in Northern Europe and the busiest regional industry platforms.

Long Story Short. Photo: film still

No Dogs Allowed. Photo: film still

Yesterday Girl. Photo: Filmmuseum Berlin - Deutsche Kinemathek