Music. Children´s academy of art

AN AUDITION

At the time, I was studying at a choreography college when my mom took me to a casting call that needed a young girl who could play the piano. They asked me to sing a line from the song “Tonight My Father (The King) Went Hunting,” but instead, I sang “Tonight my father left for his night shift.” In Russian, “уехал на работу” (went to work) and “уехал на охоту” (went hunting) sound almost identical. Everyone burst out laughing—and somehow, that ended up getting me the role.

A SUMMER-ONLY PRINCESS

However, since I had just started at a professional ballet college, I couldn’t miss my lessons. I was only fully available in the summer, during our break. As a result, I was cast in just one of the four episodes in the film series—the one with the princess.

The Trip to Tallinn

My mom was hired as both assistant director and costume designer. We headed off to film in Tallinn, but not without adventure. All costumes were packed carefully — 18 bags in total. Upon arrival, we recounted them: 18, all present. Or so we thought.

As it turned out, someone had rearranged one of the larger bags into two smaller ones. So while the count still came to 18, one crucial bag was missing. When we got to the hotel, we realized we couldn’t find the most important costumes—the ones for the royal family and the lead character—and we had no idea why.

One of our bags had continued its journey alone, still traveling on the train. The missing bag wasn’t found until the very last day of shooting.

Local Costumes, Local Extras

The solution was to borrow costumes from local theatres. Everyone pitched in—crew members and administrators were recruited as extras, and even passersby on the street were handed medieval outfits and transformed into townsfolk. Since filming often took place in Tallinn’s old town, the sight of a camera crew wasn’t unusual, and locals generally didn’t mind, well, they were also well paid though.

A City in Transition

But this was 1988, just before Estonia regained independence from the Soviet Union, and political tensions were high. Many Estonians were wary of those speaking Russian. At one point, our crew member tried to buy a bottle of water from a street vendor and spoke in Russian. The vendor pretended not to understand and refused to sell. So, they walked around the corner, tried again in English—and got the water!

By the way, the little violinist Viktor Sumenkov grew up and now plays with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra!

Crafting the Princess’ Story

The film was shot on 35mm Kodak stock, using old-school visual effects. The sunset castle view was simply drawn on paper and animated by hand. For the scene of the princess singing at the window, a single shot of the castle drawing was used—featuring a cut-out where I was placed in the tiny window alcove. A small wide-angle lens was positioned on the opposite side of the hole to make me appear smaller, due to the limited studio space. A basic diffuser behind me provided the perfect background.

In that same studio, we filmed my close-up with a star filter on the camera lens. The rest of the story unfolded in Tallinn’s historic old town, the capital of Estonia. The palace scene was shot in a museum, featuring a genuine antique clavichord. The copy of the film I have here, was videotaped from a projection—I unfortunately don’t have a better version.