We're used to hearing films being described as black comedies, but the Estonian-set Darkness in Tallinn is the most literal example of the phrase you'll ever see. Not only is it a savage portrait of a nation on the cusp of rebirth, with all the violence and nobility such an event entails, but it's also one of the physically darkest films you'll ever see, a good third of it taking part in torch-pierced blackness when all the lights go out in Estonia's capital city.

Plot
Darkness and danger
Characters and symbols
Conclusion

Plot

Set in 1991 when Estonia was finally made independent after half a century of Soviet rule, Darkness in Tallinn posits a cell of gangsters who plot to steal the nation's gold just as its being returned from Paris. Straight away, the political allegory at work is so upfront, you can barely call it an allegory at all. What we're seeing is a country dangerously close to imploding as the forces of crime, corruption, cynicism and misrule threaten to tear it apart.

Lightly indebted to The Killing, Stanley Kubrick's 1956 heist-movie classic, the plot interweaves the stories of the bosses who plan the heist, and the 'little guy' who is supposed to help them carry it out. Toivo, played by Ivo Uukkivi, is pasty-faced and vaguely henpecked by his pragmatic and hugely pregnant wife Maria, played by Milena Gulbe. His job is to black out the city at the power plant at which he works so that the heist can go ahead. But his wife goes into labour and the power cut he's created threatens to endanger the two people in the world he most cares about.

But it's always darkest just before the dawn, and a turn of events will bring the lights back on and switch the film's colour scheme from monochrome to full colour as Toivo finds within himself unexpected heroic resources. The transition is unexpectedly rousing, all the more so because of the deft way in which suspense has been built throughout. And rest assured, this isn't the final twist.

Directed by a Finn, Ilkka Järvilaturi, and written by American Paul Kolsby, this Finnish/American/Swedish/Estonian co-production from 1993 brims with subtle touches. Lines of dialogue weave in and out of the script like operatic leitmotifs, such as the Soviet slogan "We can solve anything if we set our mind to it", counter-pointed by the Biblical fatalism "Thine eyes shall nevermore see all the evil", spoken whenever a character is killed. There are also plenty of surreal details, like the ghostly apparition of a wronged associate who refuses to die.

The filmmakers spin symbols out of gold, which takes many forms here. A ring is an emblem of fidelity, one stick is a ticket to freedom, and a pot of molten gold becomes a murder weapon. At the same time, the gold that the thieves are trying to steal and melt down means wealth to them and is a symbol of national pride for the country as a whole.

If you're a fan of Russian cinema, you might also recognise Jüri Järvet from Tarkovsky's Solaris or Kozintsev's Lear as the gangster Anton. Tellingly, most of the baddies have Russian names, while the holy family of Maria and Toivo sport Estonian monikers.

All in all, despite the darkness, it's a pretty patriotic Estonian movie considering it's directed by a Finn. He went on to make a rather disappointing follow-up, History is Made at Night, with Bill Pullman and Irene Jacob as spies in Helsinki. But you can't make a classic every time and Darkness in Tallinn is pretty hard to beat.