
Directing
Ilmar Raag
Born
1968-05-21 (58)
Place of birth
Kingissepa, Kingissepa District, Estonian SSR, USSR [now Kuressaare, Saare County, Estonia]
Known for
Directing
Credits
29 titles
Ilmar Raag (born May 21, 1968 in Kuressaare) is an Estonian media executive, actor, screenwriter and film director, best known for his socio-critical film The Class. He has served as CEO of Estonian Television from 2002 to 2005. He is a well known columnist in many prestigious Estonian newspapers (Postimees, Eesti Päevaleht). He has written many scripts and directed critically acclaimed films, notably August 1991 and The Class. He received his high school education from Aleksander Mui (:et) secondary school No 2 of Kingissepa. He graduated from University of Tartu in 1997 and received his M.A. degree in screenwriting from Ohio University, the School of Telecommunications (1999). He made int…
Known for
10.0Tuulepealne maa is a twelve-part Estonian television mini-series about the pre-World War II history of Estonia, its birth as a country, the Estonian War of Independence, post-war life throughout 1920 up to 1941 and World War II.
Windward Land
2008
6.9The Class: Life After is a follow-up to the feature film The Class (Klass) and deals with the aftermath of a school shooting. Each one-hour episode focuses on a different character who survived or witnessed the tragic event. There are kids from the class, their parents, the class teacher, a boy who survived the shooting, and finally, one of the culprits in the very last episode.
The Class: Life After
2010
7.4An average guy of an Estonian high-school decides to defend his bullied classmate. This starts a war between him and the informal leader of the class.
The Class
2007
5.1Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.
Visions of Europe
2004
6.0Anne leaves Estonia to come to Paris as a caretaker for Frida, an elderly Estonian lady who emigrated to France long ago. Anne soon realizes that she is not wanted. All Frida wants from life is the attention of Stéphane, her younger former lover. Stéphane, however, is desperate for Anne to stay and look after Frida, even against the old lady's will. In this conflict of strangers, Anne will find her own way…
A Lady in Paris
2012
5.8Erik is convinced he has a stone for a heart. That’s why he doesn’t mind that his parents have no time for him, or that he is bullied at school, or that he has no real friends. When his family moves to a villa they inherited, he is confronted by Maria whom Erik's parents want to kick out along with her father. Maria refuses to move and promises to make Erik's life a living hell. As a last attempt to defeat Erik, Maria goes to look for her mother who disappeared two years ago. Together they end up on a fantastical journey to the In-Between-World and Erik learns how hard it really is to wear a heart of stone.
Erik Stoneheart
2022
Film credits
2000s · 4 titles
5.1Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.
Visions of Europe
2004
6.6Year 1208. The first Eastward enlargement of Europe is under way. Brutal forces of the Teutonic Order are steadily marching on. In their path live a simple and peaceful people, whose main pastimes include cultivating the earth, singing and, if possible, doing both at the same time. They are the Estonians. Ignorant in the ways of war, they find an unlikely leader in a young boy with Catholic upbringing. In their fight for freedom, the Estonians encounter numerous obstacles, including the Germans, French, Russians and, worst of all, the Latvians. Will they succeed in defeating their enemies or will they experience a cultural awakening?
Men at Arms
2005
5.7Three friends return from a vacation and discover that the TV studio they work for has gone bankrupt - so they decide to start their own costume renting business.
Shop of Dreams
2005
NRThe 6 short films of "Tabamata ime" are based on Edward Vilde's play of the same name first published in 1912. Vilde's play is about a young piano player Leo Saalep, who returns to his homeland Estonia to give a concert, and whose alleged international breakthrough has given him the long awaited role of putting Estonian culture on the map in the eyes of the local culture elite.
Uncaught Miracle
2006
1990s · 2 titles
5.4Young and active nationalist Aleksander Kesküla makes up his mind to use Lenin, the Bolsheviks' leader, in order to start a revolution in Russia with German money and create a new national state of Estonia in the north-east of Russia. For security reasons, five doubles will be found and trained for Lenin. All of them are finally sent to Russia to instigate the revolution. How will the real Lenin put up with all this?
All My Lenins
1997
9.0Half the film was shot with a video camera taken from a television station without permission, the cast and staff were unpaid, and the script was written as a screenwriting class assignment.
Killing Tartu
1998
Series credits
10.0Tuulepealne maa is a twelve-part Estonian television mini-series about the pre-World War II history of Estonia, its birth as a country, the Estonian War of Independence, post-war life throughout 1920 up to 1941 and World War II.
Windward Land
2008
6.9The Class: Life After is a follow-up to the feature film The Class (Klass) and deals with the aftermath of a school shooting. Each one-hour episode focuses on a different character who survived or witnessed the tragic event. There are kids from the class, their parents, the class teacher, a boy who survived the shooting, and finally, one of the culprits in the very last episode.
The Class: Life After
2010
Behind the camera
7.4An average guy of an Estonian high-school decides to defend his bullied classmate. This starts a war between him and the informal leader of the class.
The Class
2007
7.4An average guy of an Estonian high-school decides to defend his bullied classmate. This starts a war between him and the informal leader of the class.
The Class
2007
6.0Anne leaves Estonia to come to Paris as a caretaker for Frida, an elderly Estonian lady who emigrated to France long ago. Anne soon realizes that she is not wanted. All Frida wants from life is the attention of Stéphane, her younger former lover. Stéphane, however, is desperate for Anne to stay and look after Frida, even against the old lady's will. In this conflict of strangers, Anne will find her own way…
A Lady in Paris
2012
6.0Anne leaves Estonia to come to Paris as a caretaker for Frida, an elderly Estonian lady who emigrated to France long ago. Anne soon realizes that she is not wanted. All Frida wants from life is the attention of Stéphane, her younger former lover. Stéphane, however, is desperate for Anne to stay and look after Frida, even against the old lady's will. In this conflict of strangers, Anne will find her own way…
A Lady in Paris
2012
5.8Erik is convinced he has a stone for a heart. That’s why he doesn’t mind that his parents have no time for him, or that he is bullied at school, or that he has no real friends. When his family moves to a villa they inherited, he is confronted by Maria whom Erik's parents want to kick out along with her father. Maria refuses to move and promises to make Erik's life a living hell. As a last attempt to defeat Erik, Maria goes to look for her mother who disappeared two years ago. Together they end up on a fantastical journey to the In-Between-World and Erik learns how hard it really is to wear a heart of stone.
Erik Stoneheart
2022
NRIt's December and Christmastime, but outside the summer sun blazes. Something is wrong! The Mayan calendar predicts that the world will end on December 21, 2012. Every Estonian has to decide how they will spend their last days. Rait finally wants to confess his feelings to his lifelong love, the starlet Lenna Kuurmaa. His friend Mihkel, hits his head, goes bonkers, and needs to save the world by sacrificing that very same Lenna to the Sun Gods. Brenda wants to escape her dictatorial mother but insane asylum orderlies chase her. Ervin wins the world's last lottery and is so upset by not having any way to spend it that he wants to die from misery. Confusion reigns, but hope always dies last... And, fortunately, the end finally comes.
That's IT!
2011
NRSeptember is a film about the complicated choices of simple people. The internationally renowned Estonian author, Jaan Kross (1920-2007) was arrested in 1944 by the Nazis. A year after the Soviet forces entered Tallinn and he was arrested again. The accusation was the same both times: conspiracy with the underground independence revolutionaries. Based on the author's journal, pieces from his oeuvre and interviews, the film creates a story about a few monumental weeks in Tallinn, in September 1944.
September
2010
NRSeptember is a film about the complicated choices of simple people. The internationally renowned Estonian author, Jaan Kross (1920-2007) was arrested in 1944 by the Nazis. A year after the Soviet forces entered Tallinn and he was arrested again. The accusation was the same both times: conspiracy with the underground independence revolutionaries. Based on the author's journal, pieces from his oeuvre and interviews, the film creates a story about a few monumental weeks in Tallinn, in September 1944.
September
2010
5.630-year old Kertu has lived under her father's power her whole life. Because of her gentle nature, she is thought by locals to be a little simple-minded. The young woman makes her first timid attempt to change something in her life - she send a postcard to Villu, a handsome but degenerate village drunk.
Love Is Blind
2013
5.630-year old Kertu has lived under her father's power her whole life. Because of her gentle nature, she is thought by locals to be a little simple-minded. The young woman makes her first timid attempt to change something in her life - she send a postcard to Villu, a handsome but degenerate village drunk.
Love Is Blind
2013
5.6Living alone in an Estonian slum and unable to afford basic needs, a top high school student reluctantly enters the drug game to make ends meet.
I Was Here
2008
5.8Anya, a young academic raised in an orphanage, is on the cusp of success when she’s accused of drug possession. While in limbo hiding from the police, she hits the road with Kristina, another orphan several years Anya’s junior, in search of her possibly mythical grandmother.
I Won't Come Back
2014
5.0Liina is a young actress at Vanemuise Theatre who gets Tiina's part in the new, postmodernist version of the play "Werewolf" by August Kitzberg. The theatre is haunted and the rehearsals seem to be cursed, artificial blood becomes real blood. The play won't be complete before the murder mystery is unsolved - and Liina is being taken back to the old theatre legends and intrigues of the past century.
The Curse of the Werewolf
2005
NRThe film explores the war in Ukraine through front-line civilians and everyday Ukrainians. Filmmaker and reserve officer Ilmar Raag volunteers to deliver aid deep into Ukraine's war-zones. He comes across Ukraine's many faces - from shattered cities to villages that have rarely witnessed the presence of warplanes. The people he meets are different, but they all fight for Ukraine.
So They Fight
2025
NRThe film explores the war in Ukraine through front-line civilians and everyday Ukrainians. Filmmaker and reserve officer Ilmar Raag volunteers to deliver aid deep into Ukraine's war-zones. He comes across Ukraine's many faces - from shattered cities to villages that have rarely witnessed the presence of warplanes. The people he meets are different, but they all fight for Ukraine.
So They Fight
2025
NRAs a young woman, Claire left her hometown in disgrace. Now she is old and unimaginably rich, as for the first time she returns. The town is nearly bankrupt and in urgent need of money. Everybody hopes Clara will come to the rescue. And she will. However, there is a condition: somebody must kill the man who was her lover all those years ago.
Visit of an Old Lady
2006
8.0August 1991, military coup d'etat in Moscow. When Soviet tanks are on the streets of Tallinn, Estonia, all hopes for independence seem to be lost. People in the only local television station, ETV, are facing their own choices.
August 1991
2005
8.0August 1991, military coup d'etat in Moscow. When Soviet tanks are on the streets of Tallinn, Estonia, all hopes for independence seem to be lost. People in the only local television station, ETV, are facing their own choices.
August 1991
2005
9.0Half the film was shot with a video camera taken from a television station without permission, the cast and staff were unpaid, and the script was written as a screenwriting class assignment.
Killing Tartu
1998
9.0Half the film was shot with a video camera taken from a television station without permission, the cast and staff were unpaid, and the script was written as a screenwriting class assignment.
Killing Tartu
1998
9.0Half the film was shot with a video camera taken from a television station without permission, the cast and staff were unpaid, and the script was written as a screenwriting class assignment.
Killing Tartu
1998
