18/12/2002 - Elmo Nüganen's excellent portrayal of Estonia's War of Liberation against the Soviet Union is a huge box office hit, beating stiff competition from past and present US blockbusters

Estonian audiences voted with their feet and flocked to see Nimed Marmortahvlil (Names in Marble), a Euros 1.3 million epic made by the well-known stage director, Elmo Nüganen. Nüganen was decorated by the Russian president in recognition of his work in the theatre. The film is based on the 1935 novel by Albert Kivikas (1898-1978) that was banned during the Soviet regime, and tells the story of Estonia’s 1918-1929 War of Liberation with the Soviet Union, that ended with Estonia’s declaration of independence.
Co-produced by Kristian Taska for Estonia’s Taska Productions and Ilkka Matila of Finland’s Matila Röhr Productions, Nimed Marmortahvlil is the most expensive feature ever made in Estonia and is on the verge of becoming the country’s biggest-ever box office hit too, selling a record 16,000 tickets on its opening weekend alone, beating previous records set by major Hollywood blockbusters like Titanic, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.

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