No stranger to the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, I’ve reviewed films remotely since 2020. Used to being tucked away behind my words, this year, I’m excited to be on the ground in the capital of Estonia, covering PÖFF’s First Feature Competition. The reason for excitement is not only to take in the festival atmosphere, which my colleagues – who have attended it for seven years – describe as a terrifric experience, but because a first feature is an exciting and interesting moment in a filmmaker’s career. Whether it be at film festivals or sifting through emails from publicists about upcoming general releases, there’s nothing that piques my interest quite like a first feature. It’s a privilege to witness the beginnings of a filmmaker‘s creative voice.

I’ve reviewed films that have played in and out of competition, including Official Competition as well as the Rebels With a Cause and Baltic Competitions, and the out of competition Current Waves strand. Last year, marked a first, when I had the pleasure to review Spanish director Miguel Faus’s dirty gem first feature, The Quiet Maid – a playfully quiet critique of class and prejudicial power dynamics that turns into an interpersonal war story. The only film I’ve reviewed out of the First Feature Competition, if it’s a sign of the quality of films programmed in the strand, it whets one’s appetite for the discoveries that lay in wait at this year’s 28th edition, taking place between November 8th and 24th.

So, we arrive at the important question of what we can expect from this year’s lineup, and whether any of this year’s films can measure up to Faus’s highly entertaining feature debut? While this year’s line-up is missing a British voice, there’s no shortage of diverse voices, from Europe, Chile, Mexico and Canada across the 11 films that make up the First Feature Competition.

Among the highlights is Chilean director Diego Figueroa’s taut psychological thriller A Yard of Jackals, with a Hitchcockian Rear Window (1954) vibe about a a model maker living with his ailing mother under military dictatorship, whose becomes trapped in a paranoid ordeal when he suspects his new neighbours are involved in sinister activities. Next there’s German director Steve Bache’s dark coming of age drama, No Dogs Allowed, based on a true story. This may be one an uncomfortable and confronting experience for audiences, tackling the subject of rape and grooming. Meanwhile, Dimitri Verhulst’s absurd Belgian black comedy, The Weeping Walk, sees a family confront familial dynamics as Ben and the family take the body of his deceased wife to the final resting place she requested, in the unfamiliar and distant Wettelen. Also, Urzula Barba’s coming-of-age tale, Corina, shot in black and white is being advertised as a stylish and artsy film, about a working-class man tasked with protecting a prostitute.

If there are existential concerns about cinema’s fading dominance and Isabelle Huppert’s suggestion that cinema is in a weak place, then this year’s First Feature lineup filled with a creative and distinct flare might be a tonic to assuage these concerns.

…

.

Here’s the full list of the films in the First Feature Competition:

World Premiere:

• A Yard of Jackals (Chile, Diego Figueroa);
• Lotus (Latvia, Lithuania, Signe Birkova);
• No Dogs Allowed (Germany, Steve Bache);
• Smaragda – I Got Thick Skin and I Can’t Jump (Cyprus, Emilios Avraam);
• Sun Never Again (Serbia, David Jovanovic);
• The House With No Address (Turkey and Greece, Hatice Askin); and
• Two of Me (Estonia, Raul and Romet Esko; pictured at the top of this article).

International Premiere:

• Ciao Bambino (Italy, Edgardo Pistone);
• Corina (Mexico, Urzula Barba Hopfner);
• Mongrels (Canada, Jerome Yoo); and
• The Weeping Walk (Belgium, Dimitri Verhulst).