The Firewater

Towards the end of the 1920s Finland introduced a twelve year long ban on alcohol. This resulted in very lively and profitable spirit smuggling from Estonia to Finland. As in America, this was a risky business where human life was of little worth.The Firewater is a film set at this time. Eerik, a 25 year old young man, does his best to make money out of the Finnish ban on spirits. His dream is to buy a boat with the money he makes. He is confronted by the honest Aleks, the new head of customs at the border checkpoint. Aleks is deadly serious about stopping the spirit smuggling. The plot thickens when Eerik's fiancee, the beautiful Hilda, also starts to smuggle. Aleks is attracted by her too. We soon realize that both Eerik and Aleks are being manipulated by forces high up in the echelons of power. The dirty business is being directed from Tallinn, where arms dealer Nymann and the Estonian Trade Minister are trying to introduce a ban on spirits in Estonia. The local mafia stand to make millions if they succeed. The Firewater is an action thriller with a clear reference to contemporary Estonia with its increasing crime rate. The sound track in The Firewater is worthy of note, especially the ambient music which is chiefly designed to be suggestive and atmospheric. There is something reminiscent of ''Hong Kong action'' and Walt Disney, and even Arne Ragneborn's gangsterfilms from the Swedish 50s. Director Arne Volmer is more visually daring and shows a more open social criticism than say Ragneborn. Cinematic clichés are evident throughout the film. This is an Estonia where the written law is worthless. This is a land where the baddy looks like a baddy, the godfather like a godfather, the hero like a hero; and the viewer of course meets women whose main feature is their beauty and availability. The settings are not much worse: smoky jazz clubs, narrow back streets and the obligatory country mansions are only part of what greets us in The Firewater. A gangsterfilm about spirit smuggling is nothing new, Robert Benton's Billy Bathgate (1991) and Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) are only two examples. What makes Volmer's film particularly more and interesting is in part that it is a recent film and in part the long tradition of allegory that both the Baltic and Russia speaking countries have. RL

Premiärstatus
Svensk premiär: Orig. titel
tulivesi: Medverkande
Epp Eespäev, Erik Ruus, Jaan Tätte: Producent
Mati Sepping: Manus
Otto Sandrak, Hardi Volmer, Juhan Saar, Karel Kilvet: Foto
Arko Okk: Musik
Olav Ehala: Talat språk
Estonian