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White cherry blossoms descend from the sky just as a tragedy is about to change the course of a uniquely religious fishing community on the shores of Lake Peipsi, the body of water that separates Estonia from Russia. Relatively commonplace as that description may read, writer-director Marko Raat’s “8 Views of Lake Biwa” is closer to a dreamlike folktale — set sometime during the 20th century — than to pastoral realism.

For starters, Raat took the title, along with the names for each segment the narrative is divided into, from a series of centuries-old Japanese paintings (in turn inspired by ancient Chinese art) depicting scenic views from distinct points along the eponymous Lake Biwa, near the city of Kyoto. And while the geographic location in the film is nowhere near that Asian nation, in this imagined reality, Raat’s characters can seemingly travel to Japan by boat without much trouble, as if...

"Take your pants off and put them on your head." Oscilloscope Labs has debuted the official Us trailer for an insane fantasy horror romance film from Estonia titled November, which first premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year. Adapted from the best-selling novel Rehepapp by Andrus Kivirähk, the film is set in a 19th century village, where the peasant girl Liina longs for the simple boy Hans, but Hans is inexplicably infatuated by a visiting German baroness who possesses all that he longs for. Rea Lest stars as Liina, and Jörgen Liik as Hans, with a full cast including Arvo Kukumägi, Katariina Unt, Taavi Eelmaa, Heino Kalm, Meelis Rämmeld, and Dieter Laser. This film won Best Cinematography at Tribeca last year, and stopped by a bunch of other festivals. It certainly looks great, also seems weird and twisted and dark as hell. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Rainer Sarnet's November,...