Writing ethnography with images seems to have become a conscious artistic act at the moment. In many countries that were once colonized, filmmakers use film techniques to awaken national consciousness and establish a unified national identity, thereby increasing the cohesion of emerging countries. Estonia is a ill-fated country. In its long history, Estonia has been repeatedly occupied by Germany and Russia. It was not until 1991 that it took the opportunity of the 8.19 coup in the Soviet Union to declare independence. The repeated separatism of Germany and the Soviet Union in Estonia also caused Estonia to suffer unspeakable pain. The director used subtitles at the beginning of the film to foreshadow the tragedy of cannibalism: 72,000 people in Estonia were recruited into the German army, and 55,000 were recruited into the German army. Entering the Soviet Army, their confrontation on the battlefield was unavoidable.
In front of many pearls and jade, the opening of "1944" seems a little dull. The film adopts the conventional routine of war-themed films, starting with a reminiscence of peaceful life, and then breaking the idea of tranquil life with the sound of rumbling gunfire, and using the death of a close comrade-in-arms to accuse the evil of war. These familiar sequences seem to have become the norm for war movies. This familiarity is so familiar that when the twin recruits in the movie are scrambling to go to dangerous positions, we can already predict that one will inevitably die. Sure enough, one of them was headshot by the opposing sniper in the ensuing scene.
However, these scenes, which now seem to be commonplace in movies, constitute the most painful reality of the Estonian people in World War II. During World War II, Estonia lost a total of 200,000 people, equivalent to one-fifth of the country's population. Forty thousand people were killed in the battle of the Tannenberg Line in this film alone. However, the paradox is that in the desperate fight, both sides also clearly realized that this is someone else's war. Karl and his entourage were rewarded by pro-German government officials for their success in blocking the Soviet armored units. But the soldiers dismissed the awards and refused to salute Hitler. Soldiers questioned the meaning of the war in the crowded trenches. Similarly, the Estonian divisions in the Soviet army seemed to have similar confusion, so when they encountered German resistance, they heard that the other party was an Estonian and resolutely let go, and called the other party an Estonian boy when questioned by the Soviet political commissar. Here, he deliberately obscures the ideological narrative, reducing the Estonian German army to the most ordinary Estonian.
For many Estonians who fought in the war, different uniforms determined their different life situations. But taking off their uniforms, they are Estonians with shared life experience. They wear different uniforms, but they are trying to protect the same land and family. Whether it is the scene of the Estonian SS walking slowly across the earth, or the joy of the soldiers of the Estonian Division of the Soviet Army returning to their hometowns, they all reflect their love for the land where they live. However, the two groups with the same goal are coerced by the current situation, and they share their lives with each other. They are sandwiched between the Soviet Union and Germany. They know that they are making wedding clothes for others, but they still hope to find the possibility of rebuilding their own country in this war that is not their own. The director faithfully recorded the positions of both sides. Among the grim effects is the record of the Estonian people's efforts to seek independence, even at war.
Of course, recalling history is not to exaggerate the suffering, but to better construct the current national identity. Marx wrote in "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte": "Men make their own histories, but they do not make them at will, not under conditions of their own choosing, but directly Encountered, established, and created under the conditions inherited from the past." "1944" uses a cross-section of an era to show the predicament and sacrifice that Estonia encountered in the pursuit of independence. The director seeks to shape these tragic histories into a collective memory of Estonia, as a way to reinforce the national identity of Estonia today. Valdez said in Poetic Hermeneutics, "The only way to save a nation from the self-destruction of its identity as a nation is for writers to restore the art of storytelling, and a generation Pass it on from generation to generation to future generations who may rediscover their lost collective identities.” Elmo Nüganen clearly felt the same way, using film as paper and history as paintbrush, doing his best to restore Estonia's quest for independence. Stories, ethnography written with images.
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