REVIEW Kids of the Night

Liis (Grete Konksi)

On the Big Screen

Karin (Piret Krumm)

KIDS are ALR IGHT

It is not often that an Estonian film offers a fast-paced youth comedy based on inescapable youth conflicts and crises that would attract a cinema audience among teenagers. Youth is a critical time, full of different kinds of exploration, where hormones dominate.

Young people dive into mellow summer nights in order to discover their truth, answers, and the burning pleasures of desire. The comedy Kids of the Night is directed by Priit Pääsuke and the story deals with teenage journeys, including three sisters and their personal confusing issues that are disentangled during one night. This modern and optimistic adventure is accompanied by inviting neon lights, irresistible electronic music, and the protagonists struggling with heartache.

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The middle-aged fathers and mothers are left passively in the background of this story. Kids of the Night addresses various teen topics; embarrassing romantic conversations at parties, a tough time at school, or working for a demanding company. These issues are reflected by three young women – the youngest sister, bellicose Jane (Alice Siil); Liis (Grete Konksi) who is about to enter university, and the oldest sister Karin (Piret Krumm) who has fallen for her boss. Besides the three sisters, there are lots of disobedient supporting characters in the film, Kids of the Night By Ralf Sauter First published in Postimees

Jane (Alice Siil)

ALR IGHT

Photos by Andres Teiss and Liisabet Valdoja

among them Liisi’s friend Pamela (Jaune Kimmel), and two unreliable policemen (Juss Haasma, Ott Lepland), who smoke weed during their shift while discussing which one of Disney’s princesses – Jasmine or mermaid Ariel – is sexier.

The snappy text of the film includes casual contemplations and witty sayings that the characters express towards each other while wandering through Tallinn’s maze of streets. The truth is that Kids of the Night hits the spot when the sisters happen to enter some exciting venue – such as a hot night club Loveshack, or a random gas station by the highway. These are the places where we can see the actresses liberally enter a playful repartee.

Since the roles in Kids of the Night are considerably different, every actress has an opportunity to contribute some kind of unique strength. Alice Siil as Jane – a vulnerable young woman – feels pressured by her party animal friend, and her parents. Jaune Kimmel has a totally different role to play – a wild and hotheaded Pamela – a truly essential and amusing character in the youth comedy.

Unfortunately, Kids of the Night perhaps won’t offer all the characters enough satisfactory artistic freedom while desperately searching for its energetic rhythm, and somewhat disintegrates under the load of storylines. The personal storylines of the sisters are well elaborated at the beginning of the film; but then, there will be arbitrary digressions into different sets and places that also separate the characters, and the young women’s issues fail to lead to meaningful solutions.

However, one should not be surprised by the lack of focus, since the film has been composed as an adventurous film based on emotions, reflecting the night-time city atmosphere through different types of young philosophers and wanderers. For instance, one of the comical characters in the film is a droll worker at the gas station (Argo Aadli) who succeeds in impressing Liis for a second with his depth of soul. The charm of the film appears both in the improvisational and simply human moments – but the final scenes may create disappointment in a viewer, as the sisters’ issues won’t have a cool solution - other than a tepid mutual understanding within a family circle.

But thanks to the nonchalant mood and the visual details, Kids of the Night still has an invigorating and captivating effect. The film can be described as a cocktail suffering from too many ingredients, but attractive due to its pretty colours and garnishes. The production designer of the film has used a lot of retro elements, and the cameraman plays with warm rays of light – that adds a somewhat different, even magical atmosphere to the film. If an observant viewer notices some cool film poster (for instance, of the cult film Blade Runner uniquely attached to the wall of the gas station) or old-fashioned technical equipment, the world of Kids of the Night becomes much more eccentric than people are used to experience in the capital of Estonia.

Finding the set pieces hidden behind the actors, and resonating with the chosen music, definitely helps the film’s audience to perceive a unique night-time dimension. Despite the fact that the story consisting of multiple parts won’t be developed to the fullest, the entertaining youth film still finds its own rhythm, pace, and temperature. And sometimes this is all a film needs, to offer a light boost of vitamins for teenagers enjoying their summer holidays, and whose everyday vocabulary includes fashionable expressions such as “omg”, “yolo” or “dope”. And in my opinion, Kids of the Night is dope indeed. EF

Kids of the Night is a modern and optimistic adventure, accompanied by inviting neon lights, irresistible electronic music, and the protagonists struggling with heartache.