„The End of the Chain” is Priit Pääsuke’s film based on Paavo Piik’s 2012 play and for me, it was maybe the most anticipated Estonian film this year. This is a tragicomical and even existential film, which takes place in the fast-food chain called Kett (Chain) and focuses on the colourful life of customers through the eyes of the customer servant. The film is divided into several chapters, sometimes even theatrical sketches, which form a consistent sequence.
The film consists a dialogue on Estonian films, where Estonian film is described like „well, it was some kind of Estonian movie, didn’t understand much of it”, but „The End of the Chain” breaks out of this pattern. The main similarities to the stereotypical Estonian film were the beautiful visual side and camera work. The music was well suited to the spirit of the film, and some of the songs I would like to listen again. At the same time, there were no bad nor embarrassing jokes – the humour was inventive.
The film starts with a poet’s performance, where the poet reads Kaur Riismaa’s poem about arriving. For me, this is one of the most beautiful poems and it fits perfectly to „The End of the Chain”. It’s like the key to open the movie – arriving. Kett really has its own atmosphere and it really reaches the audience. „The End of the Chain” consisted of different patterns, symphonies – the latter is also well characterizing the end of the film. The administration of ecstasy has also been put into a casual form – using ecstasy to remind yourself what do you want to be like: mindful and self-satisfied. It is equally true that taking ecstasy (with extended pupils) within such a concept and in such an honest way is quite a courageous move.
It can be said that the choice of actors was also daring. It is undoubtedly risky to put the creme de la creme of the new generation of Estonian comedy scene into a single film: Mattias Naan, Priit Pius, Henrik Kalmet and iconic duo Katariina Tamm and Piret Krumm. It played out surprisingly well and everyone was well suited for their roles. Maiken Schmidt played the role of the service provider very well, and Hendrik Toompere jr delivered nicely the role of a bit confused young man who was burdened with his high school education.
At times, „The End of the Chain” was somewhat inconsistent and the end culminated quite abruptly, but it was compensated by the artistic level, humour, and engaging dialogues. The movie suits well to the current season with its nice melancholic touch. In order to better understand the relationships between the play and the movie and to delve into the details, it is worth watching the film several times, this is something that I am planning to do as well. In addition – where else can one see the customer servants of the fast food restaurant (or people who claim to be one) doing ecstasy with Arvo Pärt?
