Mari Lill
Also Known As: Mari Tamm, Mari Lill-Tamm
Biography: Mari Lill (born December 21, 1945) is an Estonian stage, film and television actress whose career began onstage in the late 1960s. Mari Lill was born in Tallinn to Felix Lill and Asta Lill (née Multer) just after the end of World War II and the Soviet occupation and annexation of Estonia. Her father Felix was arrested by Soviet authorities and spent several years sentenced to forced labor in the gulag system in Siberia when she was still an infant. He was later able to return to the family when Mari was quite young. Lill is the middle child of three siblings; she has an older sister Kadri, and her younger brother was glass artist Ivo Lill. Lill grew up and attended schools in the district of Nõmme and spent time visiting her grandmother on the island of Saaremaa. After graduating from secondary school, Lill studied acting under the supervision of course instructor Voldemar Panso at the Tallinn State Conservatory (now, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre). Her diploma production was in the role of Helen Keller in a 1967 staging of William Gibson's The Miracle Worker. She graduated in 1968. Among her graduating classmates were actors Helle-Reet Helenurm, Katrin Karisma, Raivo Trass, Enn Klooren, Jaan Tooming, Peeter Jakobi, and Kalju Komissarov.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Tallinn, Estonian SSR, USSR [now Estonia]
Birthday: December 21, 1945
Adult: No
Gender: Female
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Known For:
Come Back, Lumumba
Overview: Aurora, the new head of the culture centre in a small Estonian town, and her ward, nicknamed Lumumba, change the lives of Rein and his father who are crushed with grief. Together with their friend Elsa, the boys decide to introduce Rein's father to Aurora in order to make them feel less lonely.
Genres: Drama Family
Original Language: et
Release Date: 1992-08-12
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Firebird
Overview: At the height of the Cold War, a troubled soldier forms a forbidden love triangle with a daring fighter pilot and his female comrade amid the dangerous surroundings of a Soviet Air Force Base.
Genres: Drama Romance War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2021-10-29
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The Monster
Overview: A story about young Cathy and her conjured up monster with an appetite for people. Fun at first, things take a turn for the worse when the monster’s appetite turns uncontrollable. The film is based on Veiko Belials' short story “The Monster”.
Genres: Comedy Horror Family
Original Language: et
Release Date: 2021-11-12
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Class Reunion
Overview: Three middle aged men are going to their high school reunion after 25 years and the troubles that come with it.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: et
Release Date: 2016-02-19
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Free Money
Overview: Where would you look for help if the bank refused your loan application, which you saw as so certain? This is the kind of problem Taavi and Liisa find themselves facing. Would a lottery ticket be helpful, or instead a few thousand Bitcoins that were floating around in your tech box ten years ago? Meanwhile, enthusiastic entrepreneur Maximillion enjoys the attention of his crypto exchange and can't wait for the collapse of classic banking with his beautiful Armani. The head of the pension fund, Erik, however, keeps his sanity and avoids everything digital. After all, only what you understand and grasp is worth investing in. But what do you do when even your 12-year-old son already earns more than you?
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: et
Release Date: 2023-09-08
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The Maggot Feeder
Overview: A man decides to kill his wife because she can’t have children. He builds a stone house on the seashore and starts to grow maggots in it. When the maggots are as thick as a wrist, he invites his wife for a walk on the beach…
Genres: Animation Horror
Original Language: et
Release Date: 2012-11-01
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Autumn Ball
Overview: Autumn in Estonia, where six people live, six solitudes, prisoners of the monotonous architecture of Soviet-era concrete buildings, in search of human companionship, of love, of a ray of light in an ocean of gray.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: et
Release Date: 2007-09-13
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Smile at Last
Overview: A sensitive girl struggles with first love and bullying in a 1980's Soviet orphanage.
Genres: Drama Family
Original Language: et
Release Date: 1985-11-28
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Jüri Rumm
Overview: Jüri Rumm is a hot-tempered young peasant who is not afraid of either German barons or the Russian czar, barfights or disobedience to his master's orders. Mari, a gentle peasant girl, loves Jüri despite the fact that he is very popular among young women. Evelin is a quick-tempered baron's daughter who is used to get everything she wants, including a peasant boyfriend who considers himself a free man. Yet, the free man becomes an outlaw. Where will the runaway's love lead him?
Genres: Adventure Drama
Original Language: et
Release Date: 1994-05-26
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The Little Witch
Overview: The little witch is already 127 years old, but that's no age for a real witch! She lives with a nice green crow named Aabram in a tiny hut in a thick forest, which, like all other witches' houses, stands on chicken legs. As you can imagine, she is busy all day to learn all the wisdom of the witches. Anyway, the little witch is quite different from the usual fairy tale witches.
Genres: Family
Original Language: et
Release Date: 1975-02-15
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Fire Lily
Overview: The mystical and thrilling drama asks what sort of reality can give our life meaning. The film tells the story of Pia (38), an ophthalmologist, whose marriage has recently ended because she was not able to have children. As she strives to move forward with her life, Pia learns the unknown but also finds her inner strength. Unexpectedly, her deepest wish to become a mother materializes, but not quite in the way she imagined it.
Genres: Thriller
Original Language: et
Release Date: 2018-05-11
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Ask the Dead About the Price of Death
Overview: The attempted coup of Estonia on Dec. 1, 1924, conducted by Comintern, staged by the Soviet Communists, failed and resulted in many lost lives on both sides. The Communists were forced underground.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: et
Release Date: 1977-06-08
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Libarebased ja kooljad
Overview: Based on the tales of Chinese writer Pu Songling, the film depicts the romantic relationships of a Chinese student with an undead girl and a fox spirit maiden. Rainer Sarnet's diploma film.
Genres: Fantasy
Original Language: et
Release Date: 1998-06-05
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Alien 2 or: The Return of Valdis in 17 Episodes
Overview: Valdis returns after 20 years, his memory restored, but his hometown transformed. Despite the changes, his friends Märt and Ott guide him through rediscovering life's joys.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: et
Release Date: 2024-04-01
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Manslayer/Virgin/Shadow
Overview: The film consists of three chapters. The Manslayer takes place more than a hundred years ago. The leading character Maara is a young bride who is about to start her life in her new family. The Virgin, set in the spring of 1949, tells the story of a young woman called Elina, who has been deported from Ingria into Estonia during the previous war. The Shadow moves in the present, on the border of real life and fantasy. The main character, Luna Lee, has decided to flee from home. Is there anything besides emptiness somewhere? The film is led by the singularity of the leading character - Maara, Elina and Luna Lee are all played by the same actress.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: et
Release Date: 2017-11-25
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Old Man Wants to Go Home
Overview: Toomas Simmo is a simple worker who has seen a lot of injustice and carelessness in his life. Yet he has not become bitter or lost the ability to understand and encourage other people who are struggling with their problems. When he lies in the hospital with an amputated leg, her daughter presents him with the most difficult choice of his life.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: et
Release Date: 1991-12-01
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Sunday Only
Overview: 50s quiet Estonian town. After a long separation, two brothers met in their parents' house. The younger one, Ilmar, a formerly capable artist, has just been released under an amnesty from a camp where he ended up for some youthful prank. Older brother Alex, by nature a more reserved person who prefers to find compromise solutions, is the complete opposite of Ilmar. The meeting of the brothers develops into a conflict, complicated by the fact that Ilmar got in touch with repeat offenders in the camp, and now they are threatening him with violence.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: et
Release Date: 1990-05-20
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Kratt
Overview: Children are left at grandma's house without their smartphones. Real life seems rather boring until they find instructions for the Kratt - a magical creature who will do whatever its master says. All they have to do now, is to buy a soul from the devil.
Genres: Comedy Fantasy Horror
Original Language: et
Release Date: 2020-11-13
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Stolen Meeting
Overview: A mother released from a prison camp in Russia finds her son, but realises that reconciliation is impossible.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: et
Release Date: 1989-06-05
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Two of Me
Overview: A humorous take on the specifics of being a twin, that puts the idea that two heads are better than one to the test. Raul and Romet Esko who have shared everything stand facing the challenge of starting an independent life. But how is being alone possible as a twin without being together? Seemingly even more impossible than that is the brothers’ goal to earn a living from filmmaking in Estonia.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: et
Release Date: 2024-11-29
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Blood Stone
Overview: A landlord chases his escaped serf but some town takes the refugee under its protection. That leads to a serious confrontation. Based on a true story.
Genres: Adventure History
Original Language: et
Release Date: 1972-01-07
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