The world premiere of the film “The Pretenders”, co-produced by the three Baltic countries, took place at San Sebastian Film Festival

On September 19, the world premiere of Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian co-production film "The Pretenders" was held in the San Sebastian International Film Festival's competition program "New Directors". This is the debut feature film of the Estonian director Vallo Toomla, which is competing for the prize (Kutxabank – New Directors Award) with other 15 films from around the world. The program is dedicated to the first or second works of young filmmakers. The project "The Pretenders" this year was introduced at the session "Coming Soon" of the film industry conference "Meeting Point – Vilnius" within the "Kino Pavasaris" festival. In 2017, the film will be shown in the main competition program of this festival, "New Europe – New Names".

"The Pretenders" is a psychological drama. Its characters, Anna and Juhan are trying to mend their breaking relationship and decide to accept their friends' offer – to spend some time in their luxurious summer house by the sea. In a rampant storm, they provide shelter for an unknown couple, so similar to them both. Anna and Juhan pretend that the house is theirs, and the following pretence reveals sincerity of human relationships or just appearance of it. Cast of the film includes Mirtel Pohla, Priit Võigemast, Mari Abel, Meelis Rämmeld.

Uljana Kim, Lithuanian co-producer of "The Pretenders", believes that it is necessary to strengthen cooperation between the three Baltic States in the field of cinema, to support talented artists and to actively take care of dissemination of contemporary Baltic culture in the world.

"The Pretenders" is not the first successful result of the joint work of filmmakers from the Baltic States. The main producer of "The Pretenders", Estonian Riina Sildos (Amrion) contributed to the implementation of the new K. Vildžiūnas' film "Seneca's Day", and co-producer of "The Pretenders" Latvian Roberts Vinovskis (Locomotive Production) took part in the realization of "The Gambler" by Ignas Jonynas and "Seneca's Day" projects (both films are made by Studio Uljana Kim). Two years ago, "The Gambler" by I. Jonynas premiered in the New Directors section of San Sebastian Film Festival.

The crew of "The Pretenders" also includes well-known names of Lithuanian cinema. The editor of the film is Danielius Kokanauskis, and sound director – Vladimir Golovnitskiy, who is constantly working in our country. Both of them are regular crew members in films by Šarūnas Bartas, and Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa.

Production of "The Pretenders" was supported by private investors, the Estonian Culture Support Foundation, Eurimages, Lithuanian Film Centre, National Film Centre of Latvia.