'Life in the Citadel' is the first Estonian language feature after WWII. The movie was directed by Austrian born director Herbert Rappaport (or Gerbert Moritsevich Rappaport), who emigrated into the Soviet Union in 1936 after working in Austria, Germany, and Hollywood. The shooting started in the summer of 1946 in Tallinn and Leningrad in Lenfilm studios. Besides the cast, most of the creative and technical personal were the employees of Lenfilm, except composer Eugen Klapp and assistant to the second assistant director Andres Särev. The screenplay was written by Russian writer Leonid Trauberg and it was based on August Jakobson's stageplay under the same name.
'Life in the Citadel' was the Soviet Union's attempt to (re)build a film industry in occupied Estonia. It was claimed to be the first artistic (Soviet) Estonian movie upon its release. Although it was the first Soviet Estonian movie, but not the first Estonian movie altogether. The film bears a vulgar propagandistic message and its historical accuracy is at least dubious. There are not so subtle hints that all Estonians were despicable Nazi lovers, or 'disgusting intelligents' (intelligent was a person capable of reason and critical thinking and thus the danger to the Soviet Union). Yet, the film ends in a festive mood because even intelligent bourgeois scientist can grow into a new person who is able to see the bright future under the rule of Stalin.
Technically this movie is not a special achievement, but that might be the fault of scarce resources in the post-war Soviet Union, than the fault of incompetent director or personnel. The acting is unnatural and theatrical, even compared to some Hollywood or European movies at that time. Some of that can be blamed that the film was re-dubbed in 1960 as the original soundtrack got lost,
It has been argued about, if 'Life in the Citadel' is a true Estonian movie at all, but it has an important place in the history of Estonian cinema, mainly because of the great ensemble of actors. If you can detach yourself from the nasty propagandistic message, and just take the movie what it is - a time capsule that emanates the mood of the era - you might be able to witness quite interesting piece of cinematic history.
