Mausoleum

Mausoleum (2016). Pathologist Aleksey Abrikosov gets a phone call in the middle of the night, that a fly has infiltrated inside Lenin’s sarcophagus. It is the eve of May Day 1936 and people have been shot for lesser mistakes. Aided by his most incompetent apprentice, pathologist Abrikosov must get rid of the fly, before Jossif Stalin comes to inspect the body.

In your work you often return to life in Soviet Estonia. Your first feature Good Bye Soviet Union (2020) covers the same topic. What fascinates you about this period?

I’ve made three short films (Zona, Mausoleum and Sillamäe), that take place in the Soviet Union. Zone was a B.A and Mausoleum, M.A graduation movie. Both were study cases of how to finance an international co-production. Sillamäe was more of a study case of how to direct children. So all these Soviet related short films have been kind of stepping stones towards Good Bye Soviet Union, my first feature film. That said, USSR fascinates me, but not because of mere nostalgia. Soviet era is an echo of a dictatorship, something that might return in a form or another, and that influenced me. I’m not talking about communism, but dictatorships in general, because they are all the same from left to right – only a handful of people have a say about their life. I guess worrying about despotism can create emotions in me that transpond into scripts – a small person vs. some sort of a party apparatus is a common theme in my films, and the comical aspect is just a relief valve that helps to write about those subjects.

Lauri Randla

is a Finnish-Estonian film director and writer, who’s filmography to date consists of several short films, among them award winning Mausoleum. In 2020 he debuted with his first feature film Good Bye Soviet Union. Randla was born in Tartu in 1981 and emigrated to Finland in 1991. He has BA and MA in film directing from Aalto University’s film department.

If you are interested in Good Bye Soviet Union contact the producer Peeter Urbla

peeter@exitfilm.ee