Kalju Kivi

Watchmaker controls the time, but the mouse living in the watchmaker's workshop controls the clocks... This is a film about time and its ephemeral nature.

This modern western depicting juvenile crime takes as its theme the struggle of an individual against a vicious circle of violence. The spiral of violence and revenge is only broken when one person conquers himself and refuses to continue the vendetta. Siim, a 14-year old who grew up in the streets, is only spared the violence because he has a natural antipathy to it. Ultimately he too is caught up in the fighting when he tries to save money for his girlfriend's Christmas gift and the cash is stolen.

Based on an acclaimed 1935 novel about the War of Liberation (1918-1920) that ensured Estonia's independence, the film tells about a group of young schoolboys heading to the front to fight the army of Soviet Russia.