WWI is about to break out. Oda is a youngster goes to live with her father in Estonia. The father is a doctor who conducts suspicous experiments (Oda's sweet gift to daddy: a two-headed foetus). The doctor represents the class of upper-class Germans living in Estonia, which was still a part of the Russian empire. We also sense a political movement growing stronger, pushing for independence. Oda wants to be a writer (but she also has scientific skills) and she feels alienated from the family's shielded-off life with many secrets boiling under the surface. In a barn, she encounters an anarchist hiding from the authorities. She decides not to tell anyone about him being there, instead set on helping him.
The problem with The Poll Diaries (dir. Chris Krause) is that it tries to be too many things at the same time in a way that we've seen - and suffered - so many times before. The director tries to manufacture a historical drama, but being very eager not to forget about the Human Part. So here we are, with a big story about a nation and change - and also a story about an adolescent living in a country she does not know, trying to find herself through helping an outsider. It gets too emotional, too tense, too elegiac. Too much everything. Still: a few good scenes, decent cinematography and yes, this film actually made me interested in learning more about the history of Estonia.
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