Estonian fairy tale Mo Amor heads to Tallinn Black Nights

Estonian film Mo Amor will have its world premiere on 16 November in the Critics' Picks Competition at the 30th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

A world premiere is the first public screening of a film anywhere. For Mo Amor, that will happen in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, before any other audience sees it.

Eeva Mägi wrote and directed the film, and she produced it with Sten-Johan Lill. Lill also shot the film as cinematographer, and Jette Keedus edited it.

The story follows Princess Niina, who is courted by three suitors: The Mentor, The Writer and The Stonemason. A photographer named Kaur narrates. The synopsis says Niina sheds her crown and reveals her true self, then invites former lovers to a secluded summer home. There, memory, myth and reality run into one another.

The cast includes Ester Kuntu, Jarmo Reha, Tambet Tuisk, Andres Mähar, Sander Roosimägi and Ivor Mikker. Reha is also one of 10 rising stars picked for the festival's Black Nights Stars showcase.

Mägi has said she wanted the film to be a universal love story with a transgender person at its centre. She has described it as a trans man's fairy tale.

Mägi's previous film, Mo Papa, opened the Critics' Picks section last year and received a special mention. That gives the director a second film in the same section, and a return to the festival's spotlight.

For Estonian audiences, the premiere is the first chance to see how Mägi's story of a princess, three suitors and a summer house plays on a big screen. Festival premieres are also where films start to find buyers and wider release, so the Tallinn screening marks the film's first step beyond its makers.