European Flair

The Little Comrade (Estonia)

12 May (Sun), 4pm

Leelo Tungal is one of Estonia's favourite authors. Her autobiographical novels about growing up in Stalinist Estonia are widely read by her countrymen. Director Moonika Siimets has taken the novels and adapted them into a sweet and sensitive film starring the gifted child actor Helena Maria Reisner.

The Little Comrade portrays occupied Estonia through the eyes of six-year-old Leelo. Her mother has just been arrested and sent to prison camp on the trumped-up charges of being an Estonian nationalist. Leelo, however, is too …