Allide experienced The Great Terror under Stalin’s regime, and decades after her hometown people were deported to Siberia, she lives alone in an isolated house. One night, she finds a young woman in her yard ? Zara has just escaped from the claws of the Russian mafia that held her as a sex slave. Survivors both, Aliide and Zara engage in unearthing each other’s motives and gradually, and their stories merge into one, revealing the tragedy of a family during the cruelest years in Estonian history. In the beginning of the film, Allide is a shy but cheerful young girl dreaming of a Prince Charming that sadly never finds her. As time goes on and the Soviet occupation worsens, she becomes an opportunist in order to survive. The guilt and remorse as a “survivor” that Allide had to carry in her heart throughout her entire life is almost unbearable, so the big twist in the ending should leave the audience with a kind of emotional resonance that doesn’t come around every day. Director Antti Jokinen shows a powerful adaptation of Sofi Oksanen’s bestseller with unique style, backed up by stellar performances from the leading actresses. (Karen PARK)