Kalli Paakspuu, Toronto.
This year, the Estonian Documentary Film Festival (EstDocs) will screen a series of films that coincide with Canada's federal election. “Those Who Dare” features an in-depth look at the independence movement in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania when Iceland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson advocated for a “new security order” and these countries’ right to self-determination.
Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson will be a guest at the screening at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema on Friday, October 16, and will present a talk, “Transforming from Totalitarianism to Democracy: Learning from the Baltic States” on Saturday October 17 at 3:00 p.m., at Tartu College, 310 Bloor Street West.
A Two for One special offer will be given for the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema screenings of the Gala film, “Those Who Dare” on Friday, Oct. 16 and “Arvo Pärt | Robert Wilson: The Lost Paradise” on Sat. Oct. 17 to all who show this issue of the New Pathway. See program guide at www.estdocs.com
EstDocs Programme Director Kalli Paakspuu talked to Icelandic documentary maker Ólafur Rögnvaldsson about his film, “Those Who Dare”, which follows the challenges of regaining independence in the Baltics. Icelandic Foreign Affairs Minister Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson singlehandedly persuaded Europe to support a “new security order”.
KP: Your film tells the story of Iceland’s involvement in the independence movements in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania prior to and following the coup in Moscow in 1991. What makes you want to tell this story and why is this important to tell now?
OR: In our minds at the time this was about our local way of telling this story…to Icelanders….it was a sense of pride for one thing and the belief that a small nation could make some sort of difference in the international political arena, even if that was really debated in Iceland. There are people saying what we did there or what Hannibalsson did… because this was very personal as you have seen from the film…it was debated whether we had anything to say really…if what we did was important at all. Some people said we are such a small nation that nobody listens to. The big guys make all the decisions anyway and so it doesn’t really matter. So that was what was in our mind at the time… to tell the story and to tell it to the world and to the younger generation.
KP: There is a strong biographical aspect to it with the Foreign Minister.
OR: Yes. And that was one of the aspects that interested me…Hannibalsson was really, really the driving force behind the Icelandic interests….You can see in the film there was very little connection between Iceland and the Baltic countries historically…. Each foreign minister brings his personal touch very heavily to the ministry.
KP: Your Minister of Foreign Affairs was the chairman of the Icelandic Social Democratic Party at the same time, can you say something about the Social Democratic Party and what kind of support he had when so few Europeans were working with him?
OR: ….Since Iceland has had such a short time since we got its independence. The consular independence is really, really more important to Icelanders than others. That may have something to do with it. Only our mothers and fathers did not live in a free country or grandmothers. It’s such a young democracy.
KP: How long has it been a democracy?
OR:. Officially since 1918….We are not part of the European Union. There is a lot of sense in Iceland that we will lose our independence if we join the European Union. Every time that is mentioned people start shouting that we have lost our independence.
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