Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel/Hukkunud Alpinisti hotell (Grigori Kromanov, 1979) (N/C 15+)

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A myriad of things could point to Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel not being a good example of Estonian cinema. The alpine setting and the exterior of the hotel originate in Kazakhstan, the film’s cast features a number of Latvian and Lithuanian actors (including a signatory of Lithuania’s Act of the Re-Establishment of Independence), and science fiction is not a genre frequently explored in Estonian cinema – in fact, the film is based on a novel by Soviet-Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (the minds also behind Andrey Tarkovsky’s Stalker). Yet none of this stops the film from being repeatedly listed among the most valuable classics from the country.

Opening with a panorama of stunning mountain views, the film follows police inspector Peter Glebsky as he arrives at the titular hotel in response to a call out – but while the guests he meets do seem to be strange humans, there appears to be nothing to investigate: yet. The accidental all-inclusive holiday is not destined to last – in the modernist maze of the hotel’s hallways, Glebsky encounters phenomena that challenge his understanding of the world. Cut off by an avalanche, he tries to solve what is going on.