STORY / CAST / GALLERY / TRAILER
CREW / PRODUCERS / SUPPORTERS / PRESS

GEORG is a film tale based on true life facts about the fate, the artistic and personal life of Estonia’s most well-known singer Georg Ots (1920-1975). This singer with extraordinary talent never reached the world’s great opera stages. These were the times. In addition to Estonia he was known and loved only by the audience in the Soviet Union and in Finland. The unique timbre of Ots’ voice is still remembered today.

The film tells the story of the artist’s fate shaped by difficult and unsteady years. It is a very personal tale of love, intrigue and family. Georg got married three times. Just before the war he married his sweetheart Margot. People said that they had been the prettiest couple in Estonia. The war separated Georg and Margot and they never met again

21-year old Ots was mobilized to the Soviet Army. In Jaroslavl, Russia, he fell head over heels in love. His beloved was the beautiful dancer with a complicated fate, Asta Saar. After adventures in Africa and France in her early childhood, Asta had been performing in Estonia as a dancing child prodigy since she was six years old. Her artistic soul and temperament probably came from her gipsy mother, she had no formal training in dance.

After the war Georg and Asta started at equal positions at the Estonia theatre – one in the opera choir, the other in the ballet troupe. Georg made a brilliant soloist career in a couple of years, Asta did not proceed beyond corps de ballet. The former prodigy could not take it, artistic jealousy rose in the family, it grew stronger with years and finally ended with a crash. But this demon-like woman kept influencing Georg’s fate until the end of his days.

The following stage in Ots’ life was his third marriage – to the model Ilona. Daughter Mariann was born. Finally everything seemed to be perfect. Then came a serious illness. The doctors did not conceal the diagnosis. Georg knew that he did not have long left. When incurably ill, he began to make true one of the theatrical dreams he had had for the whole of his life – to stage Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. He had performed the hero of this tale himself many times – both on the stage and in real life. On this last time there was no escape from the cold grasp of the Statue of Stone.

Director Peeter Simm's comment

What is the meaning of the name Georg Ots today? We are cursing the Soviet system that blocked his fame from spreading all over the world, but at the same time his broadcasts on the air at home are quite irregular. When hearing the “velvet baritone”, the foreign music lovers assume it is a recording of D. Hvorostovski. The younger Estonian generation notices the “Georg Ots” sailing under the Russian flag and asks why has a man been named after a ship… Yet his CD-s are in the popular top fifty among the Finns. In russia he is remembered by the generation of fifty-somethings. How is it with us - in Estonia? Despite everything, in the minds of the current young generation, Valgre, Keres and Ots tend to melt into one mythical character. Is this what the face of one of the most well-known Estonians of his time must become like in a couple of decades?? Is this how the memory of one of the most loved men of his time fades away?

Põldre and Borodjanski’s screenplay seemed good nine years ago as well as last year. I was glad that the script textbook rules known to everyone did not stick out, that it was possible to observe the actual fate of a man and of a whole generation. The culmination, the binding and the character disclosure were somehow natural and yet unpredictable. A large number of the people watching this film have personally known Georg Ots. Surely every one of them has his or her own memories that do not match our creation. But I am still sure of one significant aspect – we have not done injustice to the prototypes of this film. We are talking about the time when the generation of our parents often faced fatal choices, had to contradict their conscience and choose the most acceptable of several horrible options.
It was a great pleasure to work with a wonderful crew, all of the cast surprised me in the best sense of the word, and I feel so very sorry about several scenes and characters that were cut out for the sake of unity. But fortunately the DVD will be released some day...