A socially awkward secret service agent reluctantly makes the acquaintance of both a beautiful Russian spy and a barely tolerable Estonian modern poet in the absurdly comic The Spy and the Poet. From the producer of Tangerines (PSIFF 2014), this is idiosyncratic, cross-genre filmmaking that provides a sarcastic reflection on the identity and concerns of contemporary Estonia.

As in The Maltese Falcon, complicated crosses and double-crosses occur without it ever being entirely clear to the audience what is happening or why. At the same time, quirky minor characters come and go. But here, the peculiar atmosphere and digs at Estonia's place in world politics are more to the point than any straightforward drama.

The positioning of post-Soviet Estonia as a western, Scandinavian country is one of the film's particular concerns, as is the very notion of Estonian identity. In the film's final frame, the heavily pregnant spy is sitting in a café in an unidentified European country. The bartender pointedly asks, "Is it a boy or a girl?" "It's an Estonian," comes the reply.