"The Singing Revolution": how the power of song started a new chapter in Estonian history

"The Singing Revolution," an old-school documentary providing a blow-by-blow account of a Baltic nation's suffering under Soviet and German occupation in the 20th century, is a forceful if somewhat starchy history lesson about Estonia. What makes the film unique is its intermittent focus on one of the country's cultural touchstones: a song festival called Laulupidu, and its role in bringing freedom to a repressed but restless people after a half-century.

A gateway from Western Europe to Russia, Estonia survived hundreds of years of invading forces until Josef Stalin overtook it in 1939, murdering many and exiling much of the population to Siberia. Adolf Hitler then stole the country for Germany and forced Estonian men into his armed forces. After World War II, the Soviets came back and stretched the once-independent state's misery into subsequent generations.

"The Singing Revolution," narrated by actress Linda Hunt, outlines this brutal saga with archival footage and interviews with numerous Estonians who survived waves of oppression. Some of what they say concerns the role of Laulupidu, founded in 1869, in maintaining national pride against all odds. While the Soviets were particularly driven to dismantle Estonian identity, they could not contain the emotion and patriotism that welled up whenever tens of thousands of natives sang patriotic songs at Laulupidu.

It was that pride that led to increasingly bold displays of resistance, prompting the Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, to initiate reforms granting semi-autonomy to Estonia and the republic's other member nations. Change was in the air for the Soviet Union, and anyone who doesn't know what happened next will find all the extraordinary details in "The Singing Revolution."

The most striking passages in the film feature recent and archival footage of what actually happens at Laulupidu. Thousands of people are passionately led through songs that keep their spirits alive under horrible circumstances. Even if "The Singing Revolution" is a little stiff as contemporary documentaries go, it's impossible not to be stirred by the music these survivors make.

Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com