The record-making, dazzling and thrilling Estonian blockbuster `Names in Marble' has brought nearly 150,000 people all over the country out of their comfortable homes to see something that takes your breath away.

The story evolves around a group of young schoolboys who decide to alter the course of history once and for all - to fight against the Soviet army and for the freedom of the new Republic of Estonia.

`Names in Marble' opens a doorway to a new dimension of Estonian cinema. Directed by Elmo Nüganen who is famous for his interpretation of many classical plays in several theatres in Estonia, the movie has a unique sense of closeness and significance that is not common for other Estonian movies. Nüganen adds another flavour to the picture by hiring the well-known Russian cameraman Sergei Astakhov to record the key scenes and arrange the almost perfect cinematography of the movie.

Another astonishment that the moviegoers might experience is the great work of some young and promising Estonian actors. The sincerity and clarity of the leading role, played by Priit Võigemast represents the possibilities and potential of Estonian cinema in reaching an international level.

It is unfortunate that the best yet Estonian movie has absolutely has no chance of getting a nomination for the `Best foreign film' Academy award - it lacks a certain multi-cultural perspective.

In the end it brought tears to the eyes, it did matter and it made us sit in the theatre until all the credits were shown and lights came on, reminding us how important it is to be who we are.

The story is set in 1919, just after WWI has ended and the reds took over half of Europe. I wouldn't call them Russians, as you'll find out from the movie, that besides Russians there were Latvians and even Estonians in the red army. Unfortunately history repeats itself, in war it happens that brother fights against brother, or blood against blood.

It's a patriotic movie, of course. Estonians, as many other nations in the world fought for their freedom. What I liked in this movie is that it gave back very well the atmosphere of that time (excellent photography, and CGI perhaps) and also depicted very nicely the Estonian coutryside. Watching this movie I felt the urge to visit this country. Also liked very much that the film didn't want to make heroes. In contrary, it showed the weekness of these young students, the fear they felt being in war, killing other people. They were just victims of the war.

I bet this is one of the highest budgeted Estonian movies. But still very low budgeted comparing to American movies of the same category. So don't expect the same war scenes. However I liked it, as it is.

Only thing I can criticize in this movie is that the story is a bit too simple, too obvious. That's why I rated it 7/10. However it's an outstanding movie.

I was really looking forward to see this movie. When finally I saw it on TV in Latvia I thought that Estonians have really done it well. Of course it isn't masterpiece but history also is not as beautiful as we would want to see it. 5 countries around the Baltic sea gained their independence in those years (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland)and each deserves to tell their own story to the world. For me it was a beautiful story about young people and the decisions they must make in crucial situations. Unfortunately, they couldn't make the same decisions when they were older and experienced (or maybe they couldn't because of it). For me it was interesting to see the portrait of Latvians in the war against Estonia. As one Finnish guy said he didn't understand why Latvians fought against Estonia. It was because those Latvians weren't supporters of independent Latvia. Latvia's real army wasn't fighting against Estonia. As it is for Finland we Latvians also must say thanks that independent Estonia later helped to fight against both the Soviets and the remains of German army.That in territory of Estonia was formed part of the independent Latvian army. These Latvians showed in this movie were communists who fought to build communism in Latvia. At that time there were 3 different governments in Latvia (1st independent Latvian, 2nd communist government, 3rd German-orientated government) so it is complicated not only for foreigners to understand but for Latvians who don't know history so well too.