Sinimäed (Blue Hills)

IMDB

This Second World War documentary tells the story of the conscription of Estonian volunteers by the German Army for the Eastern Front. As the German Army retreated westwards in 1944, the Estonian volunteers returned to defend their homeland from the advancing Soviet Red Army who were not seen as liberators but instead brought back memories of the oppressive 1940 Stalinist occupation that had resulted from the Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact. A war diary written by Estonian Captain Paul Maitla is used as the primary source material. There are also present day interviews with soldiers who took part in the war including Estonians, Germans and Russians as well as present day reminiscences by Paul Maitla’s daughter. The last stand of the Estonian Army in the region known as the Blue Hills (Sinimäed in Estonian) in Estonia, allowed 80,000 Estonian refugees sufficient time to escape to the West and to avoid the resulting Soviet occupation.

Põlevad piirid ( The Burning Borders)

IMDB

The film is introduced by Jossif Stalin’s “performance” at the Tallinn Lauluväljak, where the dictator assured that if there hadn’d been his employee Molotov’s agreement with Ribbentrop then Estonia’s independance wouldn’t have been possible. To better understand what Stalin meant we take a look at how 2 documents – Treaty of Tartu and Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact – affected the Estonian people and Republic in the previous, and current, century…