Carol Morley c peter searle

Source: Peter Searle

Carol Morley

The world premiere of Carol Morley’s Typist Artist Pirate King is among the 16 features programmed in Critics’ Picks, the new competitive section of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (POFF, November 11-27).

The section will host 10 world and three international premieres, with three further films screening out of competition including a gala screening of Estonian co-production Call Of God.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

Speaking about how POFF is trying to innovate with the section, festival director Tiina Lokk said: “The Critics’ Picks competition programme solves a challenge our programme team has seen for many years: brilliant arthouse films that are unfortunately often lost in the mix of our fast-growing lineup and large-scale international festivals.”

“It’s essential to our mission as a festival to create structures to introduce films of all shapes, colours and sizes to our audience.”

“I was not prepared for the amazing, diverse, excellent level and quality of films we had to choose from - it was easy in a way but, in another way, incredibly difficult to make the final selection,” said Nikolaj Nikitin, who heads the Critics’ Picks programming team.

The selection is international, with titles hailing from across Europe, the Middle East, southeast Asia, North and South America.

Morley’s Typist Artist Pirate King is a road movie that draws from the archives of artist Audrey Amiss. It explores the growing friendship between two women as they hit the road in an electric car looking for endings and reconciliation. Produced by Cannon and Morley Productions, Monica Dolan, Kelly Macdonald and Gina McKee lead the cast; with Metro International handling world sales.

The section will open with the world premiere of Dito Tsintsadze’s Roxy, a comedy-thriller about a taxi driver inadvertently drawn into the world of gangsters; and close with Moshe Rosenthal’s Karaoke, as part of this year’s festival focus on Israel.

The Critics’ Picks screenings will run from November 17-25, within the main festival.

Tallinn Black Nights 2022 Critics’ Picks

In Competition

Roxy (Ger-Geo-Bel) dir. Dito Tsintsadze*

Typist Artist Pirate King (UK) dir. Carol Morley*

Conversations On Hatred (Sp) dir. Vera Fogwill*

About Us But Not About Us (Phi) dir. Jun Robles Lana*

The Rise & Fall Of Comrade Zylo (Alb) dir. Fatmir Koci*

Wake Me (Slovenia-Cro-Ser) dir. Marko Santic*

The Chambermaid (Slovakia) dir. Mariana Cengel Solcanska*

Suna (Tur-Sp-Bul) dir. Cigdem Sezgin*

In The Morning Of La Petite Mort (Tai) dir. Yu-Lin Wang*

A Childless Village (Iran) dir. Reza Jamali*

The Good Person (Isr) dir. Eitan Anner

The Young Arsonists (Can) dir. Sheila Pye

The Bone Breakers (It) dir. Vincenzo Pirrotta

Out of competition

Sparta (Aus-Ger-Fr) dir. Ulrich Seidl

Call Of God (Kyr-Est-Lith) dir. Kim Ki-duk

Karaoke (Isr) dir. Moshe Rosenthal