( en, Tyll the Giant) is a

Soviet-era The history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (USSR) reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. Though the terms "Soviet Russia" and "Soviet Union" often are synonymous in everyday speech (either acknowledging the dominance ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

animated movie Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

created by

Tallinnfilm Tallinnfilm is the oldest surviving film studio in Estonia. It was founded as Estonian Culture Film in 1931, and was nationalized in 1940 after Estonia was forced into the Soviet Union. During the first year of Soviet Occupation During Worl ...

in 1980. The film was directed by

Rein Raamat Rein Raamat (born 20 March 1931) is an Estonian animation film director, artist and screenwriter. He is the first internationally successful Estonian animator and along with Elbert Tuganov is regarded as the "Father of Estonian Animation". He has ...

, and the main artist was Jüri Arrak. When it was first made, it was highly praised by other Soviet animation directors, while censors critiqued the movie for containing Estonian national elements and excessive violence. It had a short run within the country, but continued to be sent to international film festivals afterwards.

Story

The film tells the story of an Estonian mythical god, Suur Tõll (Toell the Great), a

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

said to have lived on the Baltic island of

Saaremaa Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring . The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island and west of Muhu island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago. The capital of the island i ...

Trivia

Clips from the film were used in folk metal band

Metsatöll Metsatöll (from – 'forest' and ''töll'' – 'four-legged being', used in Western Estonia as an euphemism for "wolf" or "werewolf") is an Estonian heavy metal band formed in 1999. The band has been influenced by many musical groups along ...

's music video for their song "Vaid Vaprust," from the album ''

Äio Äio is a release from Estonian folk metal band Metsatöll, released worldwide in 2010 on Spinefarm Records. It features heavy use of traditional instruments such as the , , , and , in addition to the typical metal band instrumentation (elect ...

''.

References

External links

Suur Tõll on IMDB

Suur Tõll on Youtube
1980 animated films 1980 films Estonian animated films Soviet animated films Films based on Finno-Ugric mythology Soviet-era Estonian films 1980s Soviet films {{1980s-USSR-film-stub