The critically acclaimed Estonian-Finnish co-production, The Fencer, has been nominated for a Golden Globe award. This is the second consecutive nomination for an Estonian film, and the Estonian production company AllFilm.
The Fencer is set in Soviet-occupied Estonia and is the story of a man on the run from the secret police who takes a job as a fencing teacher at a remote rural school. When his enthusiastic young students are offered the chance of taking part in a competition in Leningrad he is forced to choose between their ambition and risking the risk of arrest and imprisonment if the authorities recognize him.
The film’s Finnish director, Klaus Härö says the film was his most challengine as “it was a film with many children and in two languages I have not mastered, Estonian and Russian. But I thought, “Wow, this is the most beautiful story, the most beautiful screenplay I’ve ever read.”
The Golden Globe winners are announced January 10, 2016.