Kaleidoscope uses coloured shards of glass to document the evolution of the planet from random motion of objects that transform eventually into more stable, predictable and recognizable natural and human shapes.

Since independence, Kivi has spent most of his time working with the Estonian National Puppet Theatre, where he works primarily as a theatre set designer.

Riho Unt and Hardi Volmer made Springfly early in their partnership.

The Brothers: Riho Unt and Hardi Volmer
While walking down a hallway at the national Eesti Film Archives, I noticed an old (circa 1980s) photo of two guys, shabbily dressed, toasting each other. They looked like mirror reflections of one another: similar suit, beard and glasses. The two men in the picture were Riho Unt and Hardi Volmer. Not surprisingly, the similarities between the two went beyond their looks, they were school friends and artistic partners on a number of animation films. They were so close that often they were referred to as ‘brothers.’

Kalju Kivi told Unt of a vacancy at the studio. Unt applied, was hired and started work as an animator on Kivi’s film, Knot (1983). “I didn’t enjoy the experience,” says Unt, “I was an interior designer forced to work as an animator.” Nevertheless, Unt stayed and within a year was making his first animation film.

Hardi Volmer came to animation through Unt. “Riho suggested that we make a film together because there was really good timing for us. The old gang was tired and ready to go and there was a hole and they needed new young filmmakers. Otherwise it could be complicated to go to work in a studio as a director immediately. You usually had to work step by step.”

“They sort of trusted us,” says Unt, “and trust was a very dubious thing in those days, but they knew Hardi and I had worked together and they let us make a film.”

With their first film, Wonderful New Year’s Eve (1984), Volmer and Unt set out to make a nice Christmas story, even though Christmas was something you couldn’t really mention in Soviet time. To get around it, they used an older Estonian word that translated as New Year instead of Christmas.

Wonderful New Year’s Eve showed that Volmer and Unt worked well as a team. “We were both designers and directors and script writers, but it worked,” says Volmer. “We are very similar but we also fill each other’s gaps.”

“We were in sync,” adds Unt, “and it was more comforting to work together. Every film started from an idea so we sat together, made a storyboard together, but then had to decide what each of us would do…because it made no sense to duplicate everything but we shared the basic things.”

Like the early days, Nukufilm was full of fresh new faces; as such there was a lot of positive energy at the studio. “The studio was out of the city almost in a forest,” says Volmer, “and everyday we took a special Tallinnfilm bus to the countryside. There was nothing but nature around. The whole group was really close and it was a lovely feeling to work in such an environment.”

The ‘brothers’ started on their next film, Enchanted Island (1985), almost immediately. This time they went outside of Estonia for their source material. “We were reading these North Siberian/Iberian fairytales. The stories were really very crazy and non-linear. We were used to concrete fairytales but we saw something different.”

Enchanted Island was their first film shown in the West, when it was accepted at the Annecy festival. “Riho and I had never even been to Finland at this time. It was very exciting to see these films and there was so much. I think this was when Street of Crocodiles played [by The Brothers Quay] and after we saw this we thought, ‘Oh, what shit we are doing at home.’