User Reviews

Three separate stories, each based in one of the (then emerging) new countries of the Baltic - Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. While supposedly connected, the only actual link is when a character or group from one story makes a brief appearance in another.

I cannot recall story 1.

Story 2 is about a Russian soldier who has a local girlfriend. They plan to spend a weekend in the girl's village with her parents, and she puts off his sexual advances, promising there'll be plenty of time when they get there. But the soldier's army buddies don't like the idea of his girl being non-Russian, which causes tension. Will he choose the girl or his buddies ?

Story 3 is about a priest who is seduced by a stripper (no, I am NOT making this up!). A visiting stripper spots the priest on his morning jog. He finishes off with a swim, and she likes what she sees. She invites him to see her show, at a nightclub called Jazz Sex.

The priest talks things over with his father, also a priest, and quite ill. The woman holds his interest, and they share a beautifully photographed night of love (around an indoor swimming pool). Then the old priest dies. Will the young priest now accept the woman's invitation to come away with him ?

This is, on the whole, a gently erotic film. But there is some menace. The Russian soldiers assault and threaten to rape the non-Russian girl, to show how strong racial ties can be. Story two is nevertheless pleasant in a bucolic sort of way. No sex here, mainly because (as I saw it) the girl was more of a pricktease, if a rather gentle one.

Story three was a ripper. The girl was gorgeous, and generously exposed. The young priest is quite handsome, and acts well the part of one of the oldest of moral conflicts - spirituality vs desires of the flesh. The pool/sex scene is a feast for the eye.

Not quickly paced, but recommended.

If anyone should obtain a video or DVD of this movie, which is not subtitled in a language he/she can understand, my annotations may be of some help. Well, I do not know a single word of any of these Baltic languages, and presently I have only a copy in which the Latvian and Lithuanian episodes are subtitled in Estonian. But in 1994 I saw this movie thrice at Stockholm Film Festival with English subtitles.

It is foremost the Lithuanian episode that I love. And here we are in the fortunate situation that the Lithuanian priest student and the Estonian stripper do not want to talk Russian. Therefore they talk English, the only other language that both understand.

About the Estonian episode I cannot tell more than what is said in the plot summary.

But in The Latvian Episode I can provide my recollections of the dialog before one of the Russian soldiers (of course not the boyfriend) throws the beer from the glass down on the table, instead of drinking together with the Latvians, there is a dialog something like this:

Latvian: "One thing I would like to know. Why are you in this country?" Russian: "Don't you know? We are protecting you?" L: "What are you protecting us from?" R: "From invasion." L: "So you are protecting us from invasion. Who are those who would invade us? Are those the Swedes? Are those the Finnish?"

And after the two Russians had torn the cloth of the girlfriend, one of them says:

"We were in Afghanistan together. Everyone thought he was dead. They even informed his family. Only we did not believe it. For four days we searched for him. Therefore he belongs to us."

In the Lithunian Episode a young man (the priest student) is running as morning gymnastics. A girl is doing the same thing. They compete about who could run most speedily.

The uncle of the priest student is a priest, and is writing a book. He is distraught and might himself have mixed up the pages. But it is also possible that the police had searched the house when no one was at home. He does not know and is clearly in doubt.

When the nephew is helping his uncle to dress before morning-prayer, the uncle blames him for not having participated in the evening prayer yesterday. The nephew says: "I would rather miss evening prayer than morning gymnastics."

In this scene, and before they pray together, he also says: "I have never slept with a girl." (From the uncle's facial expression it is easy to see just when the nephew said this sentence.)

The first time we shall see the uncle with eye-glasses the nephew says: "I do not think I was made to be a priest. I would like to draw off the pants of girls and see what secrets they hide there."

In the same scene, a little later when both are sitting down, the nephew asks: "Uncle, have you always kept your promise of celibacy?" Uncle: "My answer would be of no help for you. I came directly from the seminary into the fight for freedom. I spend 15 years in Siberia. There, God was the only thing to hold on to."

When the nephew the first time bows on his knees out of the house he tells his uncle that he is in love with a stripper. I think it is in this scene that the uncle says: "I bless you whichever road you choose to go."

In the yard outside the house, with many pillars, the nephew will eventually go around the pillars, so that he can sometimes hardly be seen. He is very upset, and he talks in a very exalted tone of voice. When he goes around he quotes the most erotic verses of the Bible, chap. 2 and 4 of "The Song of Songs", in which even the beauty of female breasts and hips are described in plain words.

Many priest students are playing basket-ball. A non-playing student says: "Look, your uncle has written an article in the newspaper. (Evidently an attack on the Soviet Union.) The nephew sees the article, and on the very same page there is a picture of the girl who ran morning gymnastics. The newspaper informs that a restaurant has engaged three naked Estonian girls, "Jazz-sex".

And from this moment the lines that are not in English are not highly important.