The "brothers" Unt and Volmer continued their collaboration with The War (1988), their fourth film together.

Following the funny and philosophical, Springfly (1986), the ‘brothers’ made The War (1988). A small bat occupies an abandoned factory. He goes about his life in peace, disturbing no one. Then one day, some rats arrive and begin taking over the building and disrupting the bat’s life. Another day, crows arrive and do the same. Finally, the rats and crows fight each other and in turn destroy the bat’s home. The parallel to the German-Russian occupation of Estonia during the early 1940s is obvious, but the strength of The War is the universality of its message. This could, and has, happened anywhere.

The War was the ‘brothers’ fourth collaboration together and while they ‘reunited’ to make two more films neither is up to the standard of this quartet of earlier works. “It was a natural development,” says Unt, “at a certain moment we developed different ways. At the beginning we were beginners in animation so the interest to create something new kept us together.”

“During the first few films we did everything together,” says Volmer, “because everything was discussed between us. But as time went on differences started to develop and from that point on it wasn’t so easy.”

Since independence, Unt has been the more successful of the two in animation. Volmer has had his hands in animation, theatre and cinema, and while he’s had success with feature films it seems that he has not been able to duplicate that in animation. His solo animation shorts are all interesting but hindered by technical and conceptual weaknesses.

Unt Goes Solo
Unt spent the 1990s preoccupied with his ‘Samuel’ Trilogy: Cabbagehead (1993), Back to Europe (1997) and Samuel’s Internet (2000). Cabbagehead is based on a popular Estonian play written at the turn of the century by playwright, Oskar Lutso. Updated for contemporary audiences (and influenced by the films Raiders of The Lost Ark and It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World), Cabbagehead centres on Samuel, a stubborn farmer who steals his neighbour’s gigantic cabbage in the hopes of winning top prize (five roubles) at the state fair. Word gets out about Samuel’s cabbage and soon every country wants a piece of it.

Riho Unt continued his animation career with the solo film Cabbagehead. For the first time in Estonian animation, the audience's reaction and the commercial marketplace were important considerations.

While Cabbagehead clearly addresses issues of Estonian independence (i.e., everyone will want a piece of Estonia), the film is of more interest for its obvious commercial ambitions. Unt contends that artistic factors were secondary: “We were consciously trying to make something more commercial.” Unfortunately, Unt had never seen any of England’s Aardman Animations' stop-motion films. In comparison, Cabbagehead, despite a strong script and animation, is a decidedly primitive film that pales next to the smooth, professional look of Aardman’s work.

More importantly, Cabbagehead suggested a new reality for Estonian animation: a commercial marketplace. “You have to think more of the audience these days and you have to work harder and be more precise about what you are doing,” says Unt. “In the Soviet times, you could pour all of your stress and problems into your metaphoric work. These days you can’t do that anymore. The financial side requires different thinking. In those days, you didn’t have to worry about where the money was coming from. These days your story has to be good and well thought out.” Clearly, Cabbagehead signalled a new era for Estonian animators.