The Bus

The Tallinn-Kaliningrad bus crosses three borders during one night: Estonian-Latvian, Latvian-Lithuanian and Lithuanian Russian. It drives over the territories of four countries. Its passengers need to use four different currencies to pay for toilets or buy sandwiches during the journey. “The reason for making the film is the peculiar nature of this situation. During the Soviet times there were no border guards on this route. Since the three Baltic States have joined the EU, history has changed also. In the bus you exist in different dimensions of time. The real time is actual for the travel (departure, arrival). Than there is the time of bus: an hour in the bus is different from time outside of the bus. As well you have the time of your dreams. And you live in the time of history. The running time of the film is short compared to the journey from Tallinn to Kaliningrad. What we tried to do is reach some synchronism of subjective time of bus, people, history. The bus is not just a space on wheels moving through another space, the bus is a short-term home for the representatives of different nations and different social strata.” Laila Pakalnina