Indy Film Fest — Chasing Unicorns
Chasing Unicorns is an entrant into the 2020 Indy Film Festival, available now in a virtual format. Briefly, Chasing Unicorns is a film about trying to get a startup company off the ground in the country of Estonia.
“Estonia?” you may be asking yourself. Yes, Estonia.
Estonia, for those who are geographically disinclined like myself, is a country in Northeastern-Europe that borders Russia, Latvia, and the Baltic Sea. Don’t worry, not only did I have to Google that information, an American-character can be quoted in the movie as saying, “I don’t even know how to get to Estonia.” Here is Estonia on a map:
Now that we have that brief lesson out of the way, here are some other facts that I learned about Estonia while watching the film:
Estonia is a country of 1.3 million people
Estonian-born Skype kicked off the local startup boom when it sold for $8.5 billion in 2005
There are almost 500 start-up companies in Estonia, employing over 5,000 people
The film opens up by saying, “Everyone in America has a car...Everyone in Estonia has a startup.”
Tõnu (Henrik Kalmet), the male lead, is an app developer who dreams of making it big in the “startup game.” In fact, he likens creating a successful startup company to playing the video game Doom. Ultimately, “beating the game” would mean selling your company to a venture capitalist and enjoying your profits, much like the creators of Skype.
Known in the town for his many failures and previous attempts at startup companies, Tõnu meets Õie (Liisa Pulk), our female lead, at a startup seminar that draws eyerolls from the locals who dismiss the event as a scam. Tõnu takes Õie’s idea of 3D printing “cute” bicycle helmets, and transforms it into a potentially revolutionary company that will make self-driving bicycles. Quite the transformation, right?
Chasing Unicorns starts in Estonia, but as Tõnu and Õie gain traction with their idea, they make their way to Silicon Valley after meeting fictional Facebook co-founder Tom Marcusson (Johann Urb) who invests in their company. Marcusson is one of the many highlights of this very entertaining movie; get a taste for him after watching the official trailer to the film (he's the goofball in the yellow-Patagonia vest who thinks he can rap).
https://youtu.be/egqU-CMXjrU
It is worth noting that this film was written, directed, AND edited by Rain Rannu. The film editing and cinematography were top notch. Also, for Estonian viewers, they might enjoy the cameo by former Prime Minister of Estonia, Taavi Rõivas who joins Tõnu and Õie’s startup company for a few choice scenes. The film is available with English, Russian, or Estonian subtitles, though there are parts of the film that are entirely in English.
Check this out at the 2020 Indy Film Fest (August 13, 2020 to August 23, 2020).