We join Liina, a young woman from the country as she begins an independent life in the city. She steps off the train in Tallinn where her cousin Ava has already been living for a year. The two discover various microcosms, comprising of the strange and the strangers around us as Liina attempts to find a job, in a brothel, in a supermarket and everywhere in between.

The collision between what she is looking for and the reality of what she finds generates humour that often borders on the absurd. The characters too, ranging from a militant motivational speaker to a man dressed as a giant duck, are representative of those Liina comes across in a world where dark humour is juxtaposed with a brightly coloured palette. The aesthetic of the film too straddles hyper-reality with dream-like states.

It is in the latter that the young woman from the village really finds what she is looking for - love, in the form of Danny from Grease, or rather a man who resembles him. Cultural references are piled high in this visually rich and highly stylized contemporary drama.

The Wish Tree, or Suvide Puu, has been one of Estonia’s success stories of the last couple of years, along with Veiko Ounpuu’s Autumn Ball (2007) and The Temptation of St. Tony (2009), screening at film festivals worldwide and picking up the award for Best Comedy at Tiburon International Film Festival in California.
 

Director's Profile

Liina Paakspuu graduated with a BA in audiovisual media in 2003 and a masters degree in film arts in 2009 from Baltic Film and Media School where she currently also lectures. She owns the production company Kinky Kong Productions and has produced and directed short films, documentaries, music videos and TV shows. The Wish Tree is her debut feature film.