Presenting two vital restorations of the films of Leida Laius: an icon of Estonian cinema who brought complex and compelling female protagonists to the Soviet screen.

One of Baltic cinema’s most enduring artists, Leida Laius (1923-1996) was renowned for her empathetic treatment of the disaffected young women of Soviet society. Our double bill tribute presents restorations of Laius’s final two films, which form a two-part portrait of life on the margins of late communist society. Smile at Last (1985) tells the tale of 16-year-old Mari (Monika Järv), abandoned by her alcoholic father to a state orphanage where she must contend with the cruelty of her peers and the angst of first love. Shot in a real children’s home using amateur actors, this is a cult classic ripe for rediscovery. In her final film, A Stolen Meeting (1988), Laius crafts a vivid and heartfelt take on rootlessness, reconciliation, and motherhood at the end of the Soviet era. On her release from a Russian prison, Valentina (Maria Klenskaja) returns to her native Estonia in search of her son, given up for adoption years before. As she struggles to adapt to life on the outside, she is brought closer and closer to the reunion that she both desires and fears.