Ilmar Raag

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

Windward Land poster
10.0

Tuulepealne 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

The Class: Life After poster
6.9

The 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

The Class poster
7.4

An 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

Visions of Europe poster
5.1

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

Visions of Europe

2004

A Lady in Paris poster
6.0

Anne 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

Erik Stoneheart poster
5.8

Erik 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

Series credits

Behind the camera

The Class poster
7.4

An 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

The Class poster
7.4

An 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

A Lady in Paris poster
6.0

Anne 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

A Lady in Paris poster
6.0

Anne 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

Erik Stoneheart poster
5.8

Erik 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

That's IT! poster
NR

It'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

September poster
NR

September 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

September poster
NR

September 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

Love Is Blind poster
5.6

30-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

Love Is Blind poster
5.6

30-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

I Was Here poster
5.6

Living 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

I Won't Come Back poster
5.8

Anya, 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

The Curse of the Werewolf poster
5.0

Liina 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

So They Fight poster
NR

The 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

So They Fight poster
NR

The 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

Visit of an Old Lady poster
NR

As 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

August 1991 poster
8.0

August 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

August 1991 poster
8.0

August 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

Killing Tartu poster
9.0

Half 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

Killing Tartu poster
9.0

Half 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

Killing Tartu poster
9.0

Half 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