„Paul Keres. The King“ world premiere opened the Black Nights Film Festival’s sports programme

Paul Keres was an Estonian chess player and international grandmaster who unfortunately never became a world champion. The film was given the motto by Genna Sosonko: “Paul Keres – Soviet citizen, Estonian pride.” What happened to Paul Keres in 1944-1948? This is also where the timeless theme of the film emerges – the collision of power and spirit. Specifically, Soviet power and spirit. The Soviet powers interrupted the spirit until the end.



The film's scriptwriters are Hannes Rumm and Eero Epner, who wrote the episodes of the secret visit by a high official of the NKVD to Paul Keres's apartment during the most anxious times of the 1940s.
The film’s music comes from the ballet “Paul Keres” by Timo Steiner and Sander Mölder. Keres is the only chess player in the world to have a ballet written after him, and he was the first chess player to be printed on a national banknote – the Estonian kroon.

The director and producer of the film, Toomas Lepp said: „Chess history knows several world champions and one genius who was Paul Keres. If Paul Keres and his family had escaped to the West in 1944, would there have been more world champions by 1975? We try to find answers to this in the film," said Toomas Lepp
Paul Keres' grandson, Paul Keres Jr., said at the premiere that the film was new to his family as well. „These things were never discussed in the family. We did not refer to my grandfather as a chess player, the magnificent silver medallist or that he had political intrigues. He was just a grandfather," said Keres.

According to the president of the Estonian Olympic Committee (EOK), Urmas Sõõrumaa, the premiere of a domestic sports film at a world-class film festival like PÖFF is a great way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the EOK.

"Paul Keres was a hero of his time, whose life's special twists and turns must not be forgotten. It is symbolic that we can honorably remember one of our heroes on the occasion of our 100th birthday," said Sõõrumaa.