Arvo Pärt
Known for Sound
Born
September 11, 1935 (age 90)
Birthplace
Paide, Järva County, Estonia
Filmography
189 films, 12 shows
Known for Sound
Arvo Pärt (Estonian pronunciation: [ˈɑrʋo ˈpært]; born September 11, 1935) is an Estonian composer of classical and religious music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. His most performed works include Fratres (1977), Spiegel im Spiegel (1978), and Für Alina (1976). From 2011 to 2018, Pärt was the most performed living composer in the world, and the second most performed in 2019. The Arvo Pärt Centre, in Laulasmaa, was opened to the public in 2018. Pärt's music is in part inspired by Gregorian chant.
Born
September 11, 1935 (age 90)
Birthplace
Paide, Järva County, Estonia
Filmography
189 films, 12 shows

All This Death
2025 · 16m
country: Lebanon
An old Beirut resident checks the obituaries page and attends funerals daily. His "mourning" routine reveals a journey of grieving and accepting the loss of a loved one, a home and a city.

Beyond the Homestead
2024 · 14m
country: Unknown
Two lifelong friend's friendship is jeopardized after a new boy comes into town. Trapped on a farm with a drunken father breathing down his neck, Eden is forced to come face to face with feelings buried deep inside himself.
The Endless - Parts I And II
The Endless - Parts I And II
2024 · 3h 11m
country: Mexico
Amid Mexico's humanitarian crisis, with over 100,000 people missing due to organized crime, The Endless presents a poignant collection of testimonies from victims' families, researchers, and pit trackers. Traversing Veracruz, Mexico City, and Ciudad Juárez, the film captures the enduring struggle of those left behind, grounding its lens in their relentless pursuit of answers and justice.

Nostalghia - Sui luoghi di Tarkovskij 40 anni dopo
2022
country: Italy

Experience of Goodness
2021 · 8m
country: Greece
At the age of three Lydie Dattas had a spiritual experience thanks to a nun that took care of her while she was ill. That experience followed her throughout her entire life.

Sweet Thing
2020 · 1h 31m
country: United States
For Billie and Nico, life with their father is a roller-coaster ride of playfulness and unease. When he is in the grip of alcohol, tears flow and their apparently idyllic family life collapses. Their mostly absent and irresponsible mother is not much help either. But their friendship with Malik, a boy of Billie’s age, frees them from their shackles. Together they embark on a journey full of intense moments of freedom. The colourful, emotional world of the three young people is depicted in kaleidoscopic black and white imagery, which opens space for their own notions of childhood. Alexandre Rockwell's tale portrays a profound sense of solidarity and deep love: for cinema and Billie Holiday, and also for risk and adventure.
I am the Human thy God
I am the Human thy God
2019 · 5m
country: Finland
There was no room for other animals in the ark. The only one left is the king of creation, the worst of all animals, human.

Valley of the Rulers
2019 · 26m
country: Israel
A poetic and metaphysical view on a daily life routine in a distant nursing home, on a top of the mountain in Uzice, Serbia – the closest place to heaven. This is the last station on earth for old people that called “clients”. While they’re waiting for the end of their lives, prisoned in a desolate nursing home and their old-dying body, they are fighting for the freedom of their soul, the only place they can feel young and alive. A fight between light and darkness, suffering and acceptance, life and death.

The Apparition
2018 · 2h 19m
country: Belgium
Jacques Mayano, a French journalist who has lived a traumatic experience, is recruited by the Vatican to be part of a task force that must investigate the veracity of a supernatural apparition allegedly happened in a small French village.

Twenty Two
2017 · 1h 40m
country: China
Follow the lives of the elderly survivors who were forced into sex slavery as “Comfort Women” by the Japanese during World War II. At the time of filming, only 22 of these women were still alive to tell their story. Through their own personal histories and perspectives, they tell a tale that should never be forgotten to generations unaware of the brutalization that occurred.

Cracking the Shakespeare Code
2016 · 2h 5m
country: Norway
Norwegian researcher Petter Amundsen claims to have deciphered a secret code hidden in legendary playwright William Shakespeare's works that reveals a map leading to the location of certain treasures. British Shakespearean scholar Robert Crumpton embarks on a mission to prove he is spectacularly wrong. (A remake of “Shakespeare: The Hidden Truth,” including new discoveries.)

The Master
2015 · 18m
country: Estonia
A dog, Popi, and a monkey named Huhuu are waiting for their Master to come home. But one day it becomes clear that he’s not going to be coming home anymore. From that day their mutual lives begin. While he is actually smarter and stronger than his simian companion, Popi capitulates to every one of Huhuu’s whims in a show of obedience and subservience. Huhuu meanwhile becomes a symbol of licentiousness and tomfoolery. The film is based on the short story "Popi and Huhuu" by Estonian author Friedebert Tuglas.

Adam's Passion
2015 · 1h 34m
country: Estonia
Adam’s Passion is the moving first collaboration between two “masters of slow motion who harmonize perfectly with each other” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). In the spectacular setting of a former submarine factory, American director and universal artist Robert Wilson creates a poetic visual world in which the mystical musical language of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt can cast its meditative spell. Three of Pärt’s major works – Adam’s Lament, Tabula rasa, and Miserere, as well as Sequentia, a new work composed especially for this production – are brought together here using light, space, and movement to create a tightly-woven Gesamtkunstwerk in which the artistic visions of these two great artists mirror each other.

Singing Women
2013 · 2h 8m
country: France
An island off the coast of Turkey is about to be evacuated due to a possible earthquake but its inhabitants have been stricken with a mysterious illness, consigning them to an uncertain fate.

Childhood Land Siberia
2013 · 52m
country: Latvia
The documentary "Childhood Land Siberia" continues the series of films about the deportations to Siberia, commited by the Soviet Union as part of an ethnic cleansing in its occupied lands in 1941. Some of the surviving children who were deported, now seniors, wish to visit the lands of their childhood in Siberia. They have experienced the cold and famine and have lost their families there, but it was their only childhood, with sun and snow, friends and people who helped them survive. What is it like there now? Does anyone remember them there?
Bells of Europe
Bells of Europe
2011
country: Italy
A journey through faith in Europe.

Gvido Zvaigzne
2011 · 42m
country: Latvia
In January 2011, Latvia commemorated the 20th anniversary of the tragic events that occurred in January 1991. Film producer Andris Slapiņš was killed, and cameraman Gvido Zvaigzne was fatally injured on the night of January 20th and died in hospital two weeks later. He was a young man whose talent had not yet fully flourished. His story, however, contains elements that make it not only possible to demonstrate his personal tragedy, but also the problematic existence of a young and creative person during an era when everything was crumbling around him. Destiny kept Gvido Zvaigzne from finishing his route, but the events and values of his life represent a model of his generation’s efforts.

Sounds and Silence - Travels with Manfred Eicher
2009 · 1h 28m
country: Switzerland
On the way through a world of sounds and noise – with Manfred Eicher, the oustanding discoverer and mediator of contemporary music and founder of the music label ECM. On this journey we are meeting musicians and composers, but also people and places which are connected with him and with each other. We are encountering stories, landscapes, cities, disputes and hugs, tranquillity, hectic pace, work, self-doubt, joy, passion.

The Banishment
2008 · 2h 38m
country: Russia
While vacationing in the countryside at his childhood home, a woman suddenly reveals to her husband that she is expecting a child – but not his.

The Giant Buddhas
2005 · 1h 35m
country: Switzerland
Christian Frei's documentary traces the tragic tale of the giant Buddhas of Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley, which stood as monumental landmarks for 1,500 years until 2001, when the Taliban declared that all non-Islamic statues in the country be destroyed. Despite international protest, the statues were blown up. Through interwoven narratives from past and present, Frei's film sheds light on the disturbing consequences of religious fanaticism.

The Buried Forest
2005 · 1h 33m
country: Japan
Three high school girls living out in the country build stories out from their local environment, mountainous and bordered by an unkempt buried forest.

After the Day Before
2004 · 2h
country: Hungary
The details of a young girl's brutal murder are told through manipulated chronology and fragmented storylines.

Notre Musique
2004 · 1h 20m
country: France
A three-chapter (Hell, Purgatory and Paradise) meditation on the city of Sarajevo in the wake of the Bosnian war, on Palestine and Israel, and on war itself.

TRAGEDIA ENDOGONIDIA - R.#07 ROME
2003 · 28m
country: France
Mussolini is surrounded by pictures torn from a history-generated dream which gradually merge into everyday reality. Harlequin is the servant of two masters. The permanence of the clergy in the Eternal City is placed under a great bell which swings without a clapper.

Gerry
2002 · 1h 43m
country: Argentina
Two friends named Gerry become lost in the desert after taking a wrong turn. Their attempts to find their way home only lead them into further trouble.

In the Darkness of Time
2002 · 10m
country: France
Conceived as a reflection on the theme of time at the turn of the millennium, "Dans le noir du temps" functions as a Pandora’s box which hides all the horrors of the world: the last moments of youth, fame, thoughts, memory, love, silence, history, fear, eternity and, of course, cinema.

In Praise of Love
2001 · 1h 39m
country: France
Someone we hear talking - but whom we do not see - speaks of a project which describes the four key moments of love: meeting, physical passion, arguments/separation and making up. This project is to be told through three couples: young, adult and old. We do not know if the project is for a play, a film, a novel or an opera. The author of the project is always accompanied by a kind of servant. Meanwhile, two years earlier, an American civil servant meets with an elderly French couple who had fought in the Resistance during World War II, brokering a deal with a Hollywood director to buy the rights to tell their story. The members of the old couple's family discuss heatedly questions of nation, memory and history.

After the Reconciliation
2000 · 1h 14m
country: France
An elderly couple and a younger man and woman follow up failed seduction attempts with conversation about love and the meaning of life.

A Kind of Hush
1999 · 1h 33m
country: United Kingdom
Six teens who were traumatized by child abuse early in their lives come together to form a gang that ultimately plots revenge against the ones who committed the crimes against them. The gang leader is the only one who has something of a normal life, living at a hotel where he is an apprentice and friends with the managers who are like surrogate parents to him. However, when the others start to attack their tormentors, Smith is drawn into the conflagaration also.

Two by Dove
1995 · 51m
country: United Kingdom
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Royal Swedish Ballet perform two works by choreographer Ulysses Dove, "Vespers" and "Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven."

Lou Didn’t Say No
1994 · 1h 20m
country: France
Moments and aspects of the life of a contemporary married couple undergoing a metamorphosis.

Hail, Sarajevo
1993 · 2m
country: France
A short two-minute rumination on the once volatile situation during the period of the Bosnian War presented in the form of a photo-montage with accompanying text.
Cage
Cage
1993 · 2h 20m
country: Austria
A cinematographic attempt at a maximum of exertion and a maximum of relaxation based on the thoughts of John Cage, Chuang Tzu and others.

For Thomas Wainggai
1991 · 3m
country: France
A video letter composed for Amnesty International's 'Lest We Forget' series.

Lest We Forget
1991 · 1h 52m
country: France
A compilation of 30 French filmmakers, Alain Resnais and Jean Luc Godard among them, who use film to make a plea on behalf of a political prisoner. Jean Luc Godard and Anne Marie Mieville's film concerns the plight of Thomas Wanggai, West Papuan activist who has since died in prison. The short films were commissioned by Amnesty International.

The Paper Bridge
1987 · 1h 35m
country: Austria
Beckermann's parents met in Vienna after the Holocaust. Tracing the migratory paths of her family before World War II, Beckerman returns to the European Jewish communities which inspired her childhood stories.

Mallorca
1987
country: Spain

Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company
1986 · 1h 32m
country: France
Director Gaspard Bazin is working on a new feature film. For now, he's still looking at the fundraising and casting stage of the process. He calls upon Jean Almereyda, a once-fashionable producer who is now going through a bad patch, finding it increasingly difficult to raise the capital he needs for his ventures. His wife Eurydice dreams of being a movie star. A perverse game between the two men ensues, with Almereyda wanting to please his wife, but reluctant to demand a role for Eurydice because of Bazin's reputation as an incorrigible seducer.

Tracks on Snow
1978 · 26m
country: Soviet Union
Ants Jõgi (1892-1983) is a dignified gentleman whose main profession in life has been acting. He also has a spirit of an artist and an artisan. The 85-year-old man is lonely and has to go to a retirement home. Director Leida Laius' documentary tells a story about the life and work of the old actor as well as contemplates on the true values of life, old man's connections to the present and the past. The thoughts of the wise old man are enchanting with their simplicity and warmth.

Where the Little Stars Grow
1974 · 8m
country: Soviet Union
A story about a boy who dreams of performing great heroic deeds, but in reality turns out to be lazy and misses out on the reward he longs for.

Sisters
1974 · 8m
country: Soviet Union
Two sisters squabble and fight with each other over the course of their lives.

Pallid
1973 · 8m
country: Soviet Union
The characters of this film are the balls. They represent the idea that relations between people are fragile and it is very difficult to correct relations once destroyed. This is expressed by movements, colours and music.

Underwater
1973 · 16m
country: Soviet Union
This is a fairy tale about two boy-dolls who happen to be in the underwater world in the middle of fish and other habitants of the ocean.

Such Stories
1973 · 14m
country: Soviet Union
About the adventures of three funny little men.

Colored Pencils
1973 · 9m
country: Soviet Union
A story about three friends—a red, yellow, and blue colored pencil—and a quarrelsome black pencil stub whose mischief causes frustration for the others.

Üks helin mul helises rinna sees
1972 · 39m
country: Soviet Union
Three lyrical short stories: about locksmith Toomas, captain Hermann and gardener Ferdinand. Three different areas of life and fate, but a common longing for beauty.

Inspiration
1971 · 29m
country: Soviet Union
A film-portrait about the work of the ballet dancer of the Vanemuine Theater, Ülo Vilimaa.

Summer Games of Insects
1971 · 19m
country: Soviet Union

Athomic and Stouts
1970 · 9m
country: Soviet Union
The Stouts steal Athomic in order to use it to start a war.

Athomic
1970 · 10m
country: Soviet Union
A Scientist-physicist created a living atom that here ran on will. Without control he brings many destructions, though follows kind intentions. But a scientist eventually compels him to work on a benefit to the people.

Ice State
1970 · 13m
country: Soviet Union
The documentary depicts Antarctica as an aesthetic phenomenon - it is a land of eternal silence and stillness; during its short summer the continent reveals its most beautiful treasures. Filmed during the 13th Soviet Antarctic expedition from November 1968 until May 1969.

The White Land of Enderby
1969 · 37m
country: Soviet Union
A road movie about the vast and icy Antarctica.

Kips the Operator in the Stone Kingdom
1968 · 19m
country: Soviet Union
Kips finds himself in the Stone Kingdom, where he gets acquainted with the fabulous treasures of the Stone King and learns a lot of interesting things about the rocks.

Stork Chick
1967 · 19m
country: Soviet Union

Kips the Operator on a Desert Island
1966 · 19m
country: Soviet Union
Kips and the Forest Sage's helicopter breaks down in a thunderstorm, but fortunately, the distressed fall to a desert island. Kips learns which forest gifts to use for survival – some are suitable for cooking, others become material for clothes and blankets. With the disease, medicinal herbs help. He makes friends with a water spider who shows him the underwater world. When thunder breaks out again, Kips and the Forest Sage help the ants in trouble, who will not forget this good deed.

Mouse Hunt
1965 · 10m
country: Soviet Union
A band of mice steals grains from cats.

New Adventures of Kips the Operator
1965 · 20m
country: Soviet Union
The Forest Sage shows Kips the operator what are the flowers and already ripened fruits of our best-known wild berries. The Forest Sage teaches to recognize berries and distinguish poisonous from edible ones. However, in the end, the berries go into a fierce argument among themselves, which of them is the tastiest.

The Last Chimney-Sweep
1964 · 10m
country: Soviet Union
Estonian/Soviet animation short from 1964

Cameraman Kõps in Mushroomland
1964 · 21m
country: Soviet Union
Kõps ventures into Mushroomland alongside the forest sage, where together they explore which mushrooms are edible or poisonous, and uncover the hidden workings of fruit bodies and mycelium.

Just Like That!
1963 · 10m
country: Soviet Union
An animated satire about a boss who thinks only he knows what is what and what is best.

Little Scooter
1962 · 10m
country: Soviet Union
A small scooter falls off a truck loaded with toys. After many adventures, the brave little scooter finds its way to a kindergarten, where it brings great joy to the children.

From Evening Till Morning
1962 · 38m
country: Soviet Union
During the German occupation of Estonia a young mother finds a Red Army soldier hiding in the hay in her barn.