You won't be disappointed!

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

'Risttuules' is a film from Estonia, a Baltic country uncomfortably located in Eastern Europe. Close to Russia.In 1918 Estonia got independent; in 1940 the country was occupied by Stalin, in 1941 by Hitler, and in 1944 again by Stalin. In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Estonia regained its independence.This film symbolizes the deportation of more than 500.000 Estonians in June 1941 by Stalin. This happened eight days before Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. It tells the story of a broken-up family, based on genuine letters from the wife to her far-away husband. They would never be re-united.'Risttuules' is a typical East European film: a fairly slow pace, allowing everyone to take its tragic story in to the full. But what really shines out here, is this film's picturing: very beautiful, and done in a great East European style.To appreciate this film to the full, I think it necessary to have a knowledge of the complicated 20th-century history of Eastern Europe. And about the mentality & style of its peoples as well. Without these ingredients, in my opinion you will miss too much.

After 10 minutes I was so bored I wanted to finish the movie. But having read the review points I had to assume it would become better. I didn't. It is an endless row of black and white still pictures completely destroying an otherwise interesting story. But it is supposed to be "art" and since I do not need to pretend that I am a cultural person I can give my sincere opinion.

I am from Brazil, a country opposite to Estonia in any aspect you may consider - size, latitude and longitude, climate, culture, ethnic identity - but this 'Risttuules' is a touching masterpiece here, there and certainly everywhere. People in one of the most tragic and absurd historical period of our times are presented through absolutely astonishing images, art essence performing their sorrow and desperation. In a certain way, by its quality, precision and integrity, 'Risttuules' reminded me polish 'Ida', another exceptional film from a ex-communist regime country. But reality in this case is transcended by theatrical poetry. It is not indeed a film for wider audiences but for those who praise cinema and mankind destiny.

Snowfall in a birch grove, a woman toying with the ribbon of her dress, and wild apple blossoms radiant in the sunlight. The beautiful imagery belies a sinister history in which tens of thousands of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians were forcibly removed from their homes, separated from loved ones, starved and abused at the hands of the Soviet Union and Stalin. Many were exterminated. The world rarely notes those whose suffering endured long after World War II ended. In black and white tableaux vivants that are at once beautiful as they are tragic, and with passages from actual letters, audiences may begin to understand what happened here. "I promise I won't ever be mad at you again," a woman writes to her husband who, unknown to her, is among those put to death. "Just tell me how to find you," she pleads. The brutal ethnic cleansing is presented in such a way, through the personal experience of Erna and her little daughter Eliide, that is as spellbinding as it is sobering and sorrowful. The history lesson comes not in the form of a harangue, but is one of haunting beauty in requiem for the innocent tears and blood. "I see how you looked at me when we first met," a woman writes of a dream "and I hear your voice telling me that we will be together forever." In this brilliant piece by a new director, these enthralling voices will finally be heard and remembered. One of my favorite films, also known as Risttuules, at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.