Life & Love

Romantic drama set during the Great Depression navigates the psychology of desire, power dynamics, and the pains of love - from the Baltic Competition of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

Very seldom do historical romantic dramas prove worthwhile. There is something about the genre that encourages reactionary politics that cater to bourgeois interests, often while superficially passing as progressive or feminist, that easily becomes unbearable. After all, how often do you come across historical dramas centred on the affairs of the peasantry rather than the royals? And to add an age gap to the equation? No thanks. Life & Love, an Estonian romantic drama set during the Great Depression, is an exception. While the feature debut from director Helen Takkin doesn’t shatter or defy the genre’s expectations, this doesn’t stop it from being a good film about the psychology of desire, enticing and toxic power dynamics, and the messy pain of love.

Skirting around a tradition of kinky Estonian romances and dramas, Life & Love introduces Karolin Jürise as Irma, a young writer from the countryside who moves to Tallinn in search of work and a better life. Her cousin Lonni (Loviise Kapper) sets her up with a job at a printing house. The big boss, Rudolf (Mait Malmsten), takes a liking to her and asks her to be his maid – a job, he insists, that will be accomplished satisfactorily only if she moves in with him. His intentions turn out questionable, as you can imagine. If there is any silver lining, her situation could technically be worse: his last maid was forced to share his bed. A blood-sucking capitalist in the business world, his love life is filled with just as much lechery and gaslighting.

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