WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4 - 10PM
SATURDAY, MARCH 14 - 5PM
THURSDAY, MARCH 19 - 10PM
TUESDAY, MARCH 24 - 7:30PM

SMILE AT LAST

Dir. Leida Laius and Arvo Iho. 1985.

Estonia and USSR. 86 min.

Estonian with English subtitles.

Sixteen-year-old Mari (Monika Raide, in her only film role) is a perceptive, sensitive young girl. She has been sent away to an orphanage by her widowed alcoholic father, and she vocally dissents against the cruel games of the other teenagers. However, the remote orphanage grants the kids as much freedom as it sequesters them away from society, and it becomes Mari’s home. It’s not exactly Neverland, but the kids stay up late to watch Charlie Chaplin films and rock out to Bob Dylan. Mari soon crushes on the bad boy Robi (Hendrik Toompere), causing a rift between her and other girls. “This was one of the first perestroika movies,” Raide remarked at a post-screening Q&A in Berlin in 2025, regarding the political context of the film. “It showed that no matter what, young people will always find ways to be together.”

Winner of the UNICEF prize at the Berlinale in 1987, SMILE AT LAST was filmed on-location with a cast of non-professional actors, achieving a unique authenticity. Co-directors Leida Laius and Arvo Iho intentionally shot the film as far from Moscow as possible, while remaining inside the borders of the Soviet Union, to avoid any authorities meddling in their rowdy, energetic vision of an environment with no adults in the room where the kids are allowed to make mistakes.

This restoration was supervised by Laius’ co-director, Arvo Iho.