Leonhard Merzin

Acting

Leonhard Merzin

Born 1934-02-10 · Roela, Estonia

Leonhard Merzin (February 10, 1934 in Aruküla, Kudina Parish (now Maardla, Mustvee Parish) – January 2, 1990 in Tartu) was an Estonian theatre and film actor, one of the Estonian actors active in the Soviet Union and abroad. He played in more than 50 films. His most notable role in Estonia is "Teacher Laur" in Spring (Kevade) and as Edgar in Soviet Union adaption of King Lear (Korol Lir)

Acting credits

Men in Soldier's Overcoats poster
3.9

The story of the war film is about paths of the Estonian Shooting Corps (formed by the Red Army) during the WW-2 and how the fight forms an usual man to a loyal soldier. Ideologic aspects of the movie are more hidden than in ordinary Soviet war films but they're still existing.

Men in Soldier's Overcoats

1968

Werewolf poster
6.7

There are three children growing at Tammaru farm - one boy, Margus; and two orphan girls, Mari and Tiina. Margus' parents want him to marry Mari instead of Tiina as she is more their kind. Hotblooded Tiina is completely different from them and her mother was once executed for being a witch. Thinking that Tiina has bewitched Margus, Mari starts to publicly accuse her stepsister of being a werewolf.

Werewolf

1969

In the Black Sands poster
10.0

There is a civil war in Central Asia. Bai-rapist kills the whole family of a Turkmen young man, the shepherd Chara Esenov. The surviving Chara, avenging the scolded honor of her young sister, single-handedly pursues Shamurad Khan, the head of the local Basmachi gang. Acquaintance with the Red Army soldier clarifies the meaning of the fight to the hero of the film, he adjoins the Red Guard, opposing the Basmachi, and, giving up personal revenge, once leads Shamurad into a detachment for a legal trial ...

In the Black Sands

1973

Gladiator poster
7.5

Joonas and Tiidrik are two men from the island of Saaremaa who recklessly escape from the German prison during the First World War. Yet, there are no peaceful times in their home country neither.

Gladiator

1971

Spring poster
6.6

Paunvere parish school students Arno and Teele, Toots and Kiir, Tõnisson and Imelik experience feelings during one school winter, the traces of which they carry throughout their future lives - from true friendship and first love to self-discovery and clarifying life goals.

Spring

1970

Trust poster
3.8

In December 1917, a Finnish delegation arrives in St. Petersburg to meet Vladimir Lenin to seek recognition of Finland's independence.

Trust

1976

Madness poster
6.1

Before the end of the Second World War, a special commando marches into a mental hospital located in a beautiful manor house to eliminate the patients. But the Gestapo has received an anonymous letter saying that an enemy agent is hiding among the madmen. Officer Windisch is tasked with finding a simulant among several hundred mental patients in a matter of days.

Madness

1969

Landing poster
9.0

Reet loves her long-distance coxswain husband Rein, but the long separations have tortured her. It seems to her that the man cares more about his work than about her. Rein really loves his work, but his wife just as passionately. He does not understand how loneliness can overwhelm Reet, when women have always been waiting for men from far away. Their family friend Mart loves Reet and cannot see her suffer. It is in Marti's power to offer Reet a safe life, and the woman plagued by internal struggles makes a choice, but happiness seems to slip even further away.

Landing

1973

The Hour of Temptation poster
NR

An entertaining musical film, where a bright and colorful story presents a humorous, sometimes satirical modern struggle between good and evil.

The Hour of Temptation

1971

Identification poster
4.5

Baron Karl Ludwig von Oster, the owner of a giant concern, one of the industrial magnates of Germany, convicted at the Nuremberg trials, was released by the American military administration and is now testing new weapons. The film is based on a judicial duel between a war criminal and journalist Ingrid Kuhn, the daughter of Professor Peter Kuhn, who paid with his life to prevent Auster from getting atomic weapons into his hands...

Identification

1974

Dangerous Games poster
7.5

The capital of Estonia is occupied by Germans. Three local boys plan to blow up the cinema where the German soldiers often spend time at. However, their plans will change when they accidentally meet a mysterious stranger. A complicated and dangerous game begins where the rules are not set by the schoolkids.

Dangerous Games

1974

Return poster
NR

The First World War is over. A young soldier, having endured all its horrors, returns home to his mother, who has been anxiously awaiting his arrival. But the homecoming is far from joyful. The atmosphere of war has left fatal scars on the minds and souls of those who lived through it...

Return

1976

The Risk poster
6.0

1944. On the Polish front, the fascists are building a secret defensive barrier. The task of obtaining the plans for the structures is assigned to a young intelligence agent, Maria, who must make contact with the frontline intelligence resident, Major Kurtz, behind enemy lines…

The Risk

1971

Special Destination Force poster
4.0

Intelligence-diversionary group of athletes who know how to shoot snipers, run, jump, feel free in the water and under water, to withstand the monstrous load of hand-to-hand fights, will be able to reach the goal only going together, passing the task as a relay. Seven of them. Among them is a girl swimmer. It will be the most difficult, the last stage of the journey. The plot is based on the real facts of the great Patriotic war.

Special Destination Force

1978

Race of the Century poster
6.0

Russian film transplanting the tragic tale of Donald Crowhurst into then-contemporary anti-capitalist thought.

Race of the Century

1986

Back to Life poster
8.3

Everything is behind him: fleeing from Nazi-occupied Estonia to Germany, searching for work in foreign cities, and his own crimes.... Everything is realized and decided - it is necessary to return. But when he returned, he found neither home nor relatives. His father's friend, the leader of a gang of nationalists, told him about his difficult past. Joining his gang, the hero decides to take revenge ...

Back to Life

1972

King Lear poster
6.7

King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.

King Lear

1970

The Dead Season poster
5.3

Soviet spy Ladeynikov learns that in one of the pharmaceutical centers in a small resort town works a former German war criminal, Dr. Hass, who is finishing the creation of a deadly chemical gas RH development that he began during World War II, experimenting on POWs. Since Ladeynikov doesn't know Dr. Hass's appearance, Soviet intelligence recruits an actor, Ivan Savushkin, who, during the war, escaped from a prison camp where Hass was testing his gas. Together, they must identify and stop him before he finishes and unleashes his weapon of mass destruction.

The Dead Season

1968

The New Devil of Hellsbottom poster
5.1

The way Saint Peter explains it to the Devil who's knocking on Heaven's door to collect his share of souls: there will be no more souls, as God has come to doubt if humans are really meant to achieve salvation. If they aren't then how can they be punished posthumous and sent to Hell? There's only one way to make sure if sinning is the human nature, or is it that they simply don't want to better themselves - Devil himself must go down to Earth, in human form, and if he can achieve salvation then so can a human being... Based on A. H. Tammsaare's classic novel of the same name.

The New Devil of Hellsbottom

1965

Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat poster
4.2

In 1921, the Cheka became aware that gold and jewelry were stolen from the treasury of Gokhran, and that a special organization was involved in transporting the stolen to Estonia. Scout Maksim Isayev is sent to this country. He establishes that the cipher of the Soviet embassy Olenetskaya works for the German resident Nolmar, with whom employees of Gokhran Kozlovskaya and an appraiser Yakov Shelekhes are associated. As a result of the provocation, Isayev was arrested. In the prison cell, he finds himself together with the famous Russian writer Nikandrov, who could not find himself in post-revolutionary Russia and went abroad. Released soon by the efforts of his comrades, Isayev continues the struggle for the fate of Nikandrov — for his return to his homeland.

Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat

1976

To a Cold Land poster
NR

In a late 19th-century Estonian village, farmer Jaan struggles. He works for Andres but can't provide enough. Jaan falls for Andres' daughter, Anni, who helps. Desperate, Jaan turns to theft, gets caught, and is sent to Siberia with Anni.

To a Cold Land

1965

The Balloonist poster
10.0

A story about the famous Russian weightlifter Ivan Zaikin, who left the circus arena at the peak of his fame to dedicate himself to the art of aviation.

The Balloonist

1975

Racers poster
6.1

An unpleasant incident on the winter track results in a conflict between two racing drivers: the aging master of sports Kukushkin and his student — the young and ambitious Sergachev. The disagreement leads to the fact that despite the protests of the team coach, on the eve of the next major competitions, former teammates find themselves in different crews.

Racers

1972

Exercise with Three Unknowns poster
7.2

Criminal investigation is investigating the case of robbery of the factory cashier. At the checkpoint of the factory of precision mechanics and optics, two criminals attack the cashier. Criminals manage to escape by the car, waiting for them around the corner. At the scene of the crime, criminal investigation officers arrive Major Dorokhov and Lieutenant Matushkin. They interview witnesses, but they did not remember properly any attackers or machine numbers, but noticed that one prevented the other from firing.

Exercise with Three Unknowns

1979