Hüvasti, NSVL

Whilst Johannes grows up the Soviet Union falls apart. Though the rebelliousness of puberty  ferments inside him, outside the remnants of a state that insists on discipline remain, even though internally it has long since crumbled. The same rift runs through the family, separating the liberal mother from the grandmother who continues to place complete trust in the authoritarian state. An early youth shaped by the war in Afghanistan and radioactive contamination, glasnost and the Baltic independence movement, the August coup and Western gifts from Finland. Lauri Randla spent his childhood in the Estonian Soviet Republic before his family emigrated to Finland. This film draws on childhood memories, at once candy-coloured and bitter, even ironically distant, whilst paying homage to a long-lost homeland.