Smile at Last

Section: Focus Estonia
Title: Naerata ometi
Director: Leida Laius, Arvo Iho
Cast: Monika Järv, Hendrik Toompere jr, Tauri Tallermaa
Duration: 1h 26m
Country: Estonia
Language: et
Year: 1985

16-year-old Mari, raised without a mother by a drunkard father, is put in an orphanage which she immediately, though unsuccessfully, tries to flee from. The sensitive Mari finds it hard to adapt to the coarse manners and brutal games amongst the children. Only gradually does she develop a sense for the similarly difficult fates of her fellow sufferers, who have long forgotten how to cry. Here, she even falls in love for the first time...