In its 45 year history, Nukufilm has grown and changed. Little Peter's Dream (above) was the studio's first movie and Way To Nirvana marked its entry into the 21st century. All images © Nukufilm Ltd.

While the roots of Estonian animation can be traced back to the 1930s when a trio of men made a rather awkward American wanna-be cut-out film called The Adventures of Jukus the Dog, this turned out to be a one shot deal. In truth, Estonian animation was born in 1957 with the creation of Nukufilm (meaning "puppet film"). Despite decades of uncertainty under both the Soviet Communist system and the global marketplace, Nukufilm has survived, thrived and is now celebrating its 45th anniversary.

Tuganov the Trailblazer
Ironically, Elbert Tuganov, the father of Estonian animation, was actually born in Baku, Azerbaijan (1920) and began his animation career in Germany working for a couple of commercial studios including the Döhring Film company. When Hitler took power, Tuganov decided it was best to return to Estonia, where he served for the Estonian Army (which was incorporated into the Red Army when the Soviets took over Estonia). After his discharge from the army in 1946, Tuganov sought employment at Tallinnfilm (the state film studio). He was offered a cameraman’s assistant position in their “so-called animation department.” For eleven years, Tuganov shot, drew, and painted titles and credit sequences. During this time he also modernized the studio’s primitive technical apparatus. “Originally,” says Tuganov, “they used to Nail the credits to the wall and the camera was set up on a tripod.” So, in order to shoot credits more adequately and fashion trick shots, Tuganov built an animation stand that would allow the studio to do frame by frame shooting. A visiting Moscow official was impressed by the new apparatus and suggested that the studio make animation films.

Tuganov immediately set out to find scripts and stories that would be suitable for production. He landed a Danish story called Palle Alone in the World. This became the basis for the first Nukufilm production, Little Peter’s Dream (1957). In the film, a troublesome little boy, a playground bully, endures an evening of nightmares in which he wanders through a deserted city. In the end, the boy awakes fearful but with a new awareness of the importance of being kind to others. Consequently, he returns to the playground with a much better attitude.

With a running time of twenty minutes, Little Peter’s Dream is far too long and the main character is not interesting enough to hold the audience’s attention. Nevertheless, the film is not as primitive as one might expect. The animation is awkward and jumpy at times, but the character rendering and set design are, not surprisingly given Tuganov’s architecture aspirations, quite accomplished and original.

For the next four years, the filmmaking process mimicked that of the first production — six or seven people worked on the film alongside artists from the Estonian puppet theatre. “We ordered the puppets for our first films according to sketches from the puppet theatre,” says Tuganov. “The theatre made the puppets for us and then we made the film.” After the fourth film, Mina and Murri (1961), animation production received a budgetary blessing from Tallinnfilm. The division’s staff grew to twenty and it was decided that the puppets would then be fashioned in the studio.