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Forest Brothers - Great Escape (Suur Põgenemine)
"Forest Brothers Evacuation" is a short proof-of-concept production that dramatises a sequence in the feature film.
World War II was an incredibly violent, disruptive, and historically significant time for Europe. For Estonia and the Baltic Nations it sealed their fate for the next half century. First they were invaded by the Russians, then the Nazis, and finally by the Soviets who stayed for 50 unwelcome years.To capture the turmoil of the times in a short film is impossible, so we focused on the heart of the story. Forest Brothers is a story about love and sacrifice. Love between Maria and Karl, and between them and their country.Karl is freshly back from fighting the Soviets in the north as a 'Finnish Boy' (an Estonian fighting for the Finland). He quickly leads Maria through a forest until they find the beach he's been searching for - and the other soon-to-be refugees hoping to flee the brutal occupying forces.
Karl takes the fight to the Soviet soldiers so that Maria and the others can escape by boat.Maria can only watch as gunfire and explosions light up the dark trees. Until, silence.Now Maria and the refugees must survive the crossing to Sweden, and embark on a new life. All that they know and love has gone.
Now the nerve wracking wait, always aware that a noise in the forest could be a Soviet soldier hunting for them. But the low drone of a boat engine is heard and the refugees assemble.After Karl puts Maria on the boat, he is torn between his love for her, and his love for Estonia. He knows that there must be a fight to free his land and it will require sacrifices.The sound of Soviet shouts in the trees forces Karl's hand, he cannot accept the loss of Maria, so he rips his heart out to say goodbye and the two lovers part company.
Forest Brothers - Feature
Logline: Estonia, 1949. During the brutal Soviet occupation, a young couple flees into the woods to join the resistance movement known as the Forest Brothers, only to sacrifice everything they love for freedom.Synopsis:
The Forest Brothers feature film follows the path of two lovers, separated by war, but destined to meet again.Initial celebrations of the Nazis’ retreat turn to horror when news stations report the Soviets are ‘coming back’. Returning home after fighting the Soviet Army in Finland in the ‘Finnish Boy’ brigade, Karl finds his lover Maria in her University dorm. They desperately flee to Maria’s father in the countryside who convinces them to take Triin, Maria’s younger cousin, and escape to Sweden to evade the evil clutches of Stalin. Karl helps Maria and Triin board a small boat packed with refugees but is torn between joining his love and fleeing or staying to continue his war with the Soviets. When a Soviet military truck laden with troops rumbles close by, Karl’s mind is made up. He’ll distract the soldiers thereby ensuring Maria’s safety. Maria watches in horror from the departing boat as the tree line lights up with gunfire, certain Karl could not have survived such a fight.Maria and Triin arrive in Sweden as refugees. Refusing to live in makeshift camps on Gotland, the young women travel to Stockholm where they both find work in a bar. Maria, being smart and observant, hears a man with terrible Estonian language skills, wandering the docks asking if anyone is from Estonia. She discovers HENRY HARVEY-SHAW is a spy looking for any news now the Iron Curtain has slammed shut.Henry offers to train Maria as a spy and insert her back onto her own soil. Anything is better than being a refugee with no home, no life, and no identity. Maria agrees, but only if Triin can come too.In a manor house on the outskirts of Stockholm, Maria and Triin are secretly trained by Henry and his old ‘war buddies’ from SOE – the ‘Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’. Their mission is to connect with the resistance movement called the Forest Brothers – a ragtag army of disparate groups struggling to survive in the dark forests of The Baltics - get them connected and organized to fight the Soviets in their own back yard.Maria is codenamed SKYLARK, Triin as LILLY – both now experts in firearms, explosives, interrogation, and guerilla warfare. Both are willing to put it all on the line to help the White Ship of the West liberate their country. Henry worries about Maria having grown fond of her, and she of him.They insert hidden in the hull of a boat under cover of night. But things go wrong immediately as they are discovered by the NKVD and Triin is killed saving a village boy. The boy, KALEV, offers to take Maria to the Forest Brothers to escape certain execution by the regime.Karl and Maria are reunited just as he executes a Policeman accused of attacking a woman. This is not the man she loved, Karl was a proud soldier, not an executioner. Karl doesn’t admit his recent combat losses which have broken his resolve. Maria commits to working with the Forest Brothers, connecting them with other groups and British Intelligence ready for the West to liberate them all.Maria helps Karl and his men in a small attack which reinvigorates the group and builds their confidence, she is achieving her mission, but he struggles with the idea of losing his group to Maria’s plans.Now a true fighting unit, Maria and Karl lead their group to more victories by coordinating attacks with other Forest Brother groups in the region until an attack on a Soviet truck goes foul and one of their team is captured. Their rule is they wait three days and if they are not home by their own means, the hideouts deep in the forest are abandoned.
They deliberate their options, but an approaching convoy of Military trucks make their minds up for them and they run. Maria and Karl are chased through the forest. Bullets whiz by and trees splinter around them. They make it to a hidden hideout, not much more than a camouflaged hole in the ground and climb in, ready to wait it out.
Karl is shot in the belly by a stray bullet. Climbing out of the hole is a sure death sentence but staying is just as grim. He makes Maria promise that his family will not suffer because of his actions. She knows this means detonating a grenade on Karl’s face to remove any way of identifying him and thereby his family. Maria must abandon the love of her life.
The Soviet troops rush to the black column of smoke rising from the hideout. The view inside is too horrific to describe. Maria clamps her hand over her mouth as she hides nearby. Her heart broken, but her resolve strengthened.It would be more than forty years until Estonia is free of Soviet oppression with tens of thousands deported to Gulags in Siberia and many thousands killed or “disappeared”. Estonians found tiny freedoms in the choices they made until they could once again be truly free.
Producer
As a producer, I wear many hats during the entire arc of a film production. But it all starts with a story. It has to meet three criteria for me: First, do I like the story? If I don’t, then why waste my time on something I do not care about? Second, will there be an audience for this story? If no one wants to see it, why make it? Third, does this story have the potential for financial success? While money is not the only metric for determining if a film is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, it is a very important one. Filmmaking is not a cheap endeavor. Investors want their money back. Vendors want to get paid. The filmmakers need to eat and pay bills. This is a simple reality. Forest Brothers ticks every box for me.
When I moved to Estonia, I immersed myself in learning the history of this place about which I knew little. As a history buff, the experiences of Estonia’s many occupiers throughout the centuries was top of my list. As a westerner, the occupation by the Soviet Union and the almost 50 years of oppression that followed was a subject I needed to know more about as the effects still linger to this day. As I explored, I discovered the stories of the Forest Brothers…those proud Estonians who took to the forests in hopes of waging guerilla actions against the oppressors until salvation came from the west. Their stories are very compelling and largely unknown outside of the Baltics as they remained hidden behind an iron curtain for all those years. I knew this was the film I wanted to make. A salute to the brave men and women who took a stand and sacrificed all for this land I now call home. I’m thrilled to partner with Lee to tell these tales.
Writer
Being an ex-soldier himself, screenwriter Lee Lawson finds WWII in Estonia an incredibly interesting though heartbreaking time in history. When he read "The War in the Woods" by Mart Laar, he was instantly chomping at the bit to write a "Bonnie and Clyde" story set in the world of the Forest Brothers."The story is about love, and sacrifice. Love between two people and their country, and the sacrifices they must make in this tumultuous time" Lee says, "It is also my love letter to Estonia, my wife's country, and my new home."
