Best Estonian thriller movies
Get ready to binge. We've found a collection of must-watch thriller films from Estonia, now streaming on Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Prime Video, and other top services!
Dawn of War 2020
A historical spy-thriller set in 1939 about an Estonian intelligence agent tasked with uncovering the Soviet double agent in their ranks.
62Melchior the Apothecary 2022
In medieval Tallinn, a famous knight who is freed from the pirates of the Baltic Sea is murdered. The hero's head is cut off and his mouth is stuffed with coins. The gold chain he bought the same day is missing. The bailiff orders Melchior, an apothecary, to investigate the crime. The clever young man discovers that the slain was looking for a mysterious "Tallinn prisoner" and the traces lead to the Dominican monastery. A fabulous sequence of bloodwork is unleashed - anyone who comes into contact with this secret is in danger of dying.
65Ghost Mountaineer 2015
An Estonian student hiking group get caught up in a series of scary events unfolding in wintry Siberia. The unpopular group leader Olle, becomes disappointed in his companions during the trip and disappears on the last day in the mountains. His rival, liberal-minded and adventurous Eero guides the descending hikers into a Buryate village on the mountain to seek help. A weird and insane chain of events is unleashed which seems to be orchestrated by the missing Olle. In a foreign land and among people they do not know, the hikers are faced with a task which they at first do not want to undertake and later are unable to tackle.
59Mushrooming 2012
Politician Aadu Kägu goes to the mushroom forest with his wife Viivi to rest his nerves from the reputation campaign. They are joined by a voter, penniless rock star Zäk. In order to avoid common mushroom forests, they drive to some countryside at random. Soon the trio discovers that they are lost, at the same time a media scandal breaks out - the investigative press suspects that Kägu has misused state money. The fight for honor, life and death begins, both in the forest and in the city.
71Lioness 2024
Helena is a 48-year-old paramedic – a strong and efficient woman who has no difficulty handling the practical details of everyday life. Due to her work Helena is well aware of what goes on behind closed doors and in the dark shadows of the night. But the fact that she herself has emotionally abandoned her daughter Stefi a long time ago, remains invisible to her. Deeds that haven’t been done and words that haven’t been spoken lead Helena’s life towards that very darkness on a fast track.
100Melchior the Apothecary: The Executioner's Daughter 2023
Melchior’s bride Keterlyn happens to witness an attack on a young man. The victim, who has lost his memory, does not know who he is and how he ended up in a Tallinn. A ring found at the scene leads Melchior to the trail of the nocturnal brotherhood, questions are also raised by the troupe of freaks who performed on fair day. Ominous signs suggest that not only is the stranger recovering from a murder attempt at risk, but Melchior and Keterlyn as well. At the same time, an inquisitor known as a ruthless witch hunter arrives in town. Melchior's ability to "speak to the dead" and to notice invisible traces of murder have raised the suspicion that he may be a dangerous heretic. And the place of the enemy of the church is at the stake…
70Melchior the Apothecary: The Ghost 2022
In the middle of the night, a drunk town guard happens to meet the daughter of a rich merchant… who drowned herself into a well 10 years ago. Soon after the town guard falls dead from the tower. This is followed by two other suspicious deaths. Doubting the existence of the ghost, Melchior has a hunch that these ‘accidents’ are part of a heinous crime. Tracking down the killer, his path will cross with heretics, old feuds and dark family secrets.
60Bad Hair Friday 2012
At an ever-accelerating pace, this thriller / dark comedy tells the story of 8 very different groups whose paths cross in the space of 24 hours. We meet a wide range of characters - from spoiled rich brats to real bottom-feeding criminal scum, and everyone in-between. In the best traditions of Commedia dellarte, the characters each have easily recognizable roles
78Memory of Water 2022
Centuries in the future, world's freshwater supplies are running out. Wars are waged over water, and China rules over Europe, including the Scandinavian Union. Far in the north, young woman, Noria, is learning to become a Tea Master, like her father. Tea Masters alone know the location of hidden water sources, including the natural spring that Noria’s father tends, which once provided water for her whole village. After her father dies, the military moves in to watch over the village -- and Noria. Refusing to give in her freshwater spring, Noria digs in deeper into her family’s secret. Within the Tea Masters’ books, she finds information that the government’s power is based on lies, that there still might be fresh water left for everyone. She risks her own life and sets out on a dangerous journey to find out if this is true.
56The Shadow 2024
Juhan Liiv, a struggling poet and an unlikely detective, solves gruesome murder cases in Estonia, the Wild West of the crumbling Russian Empire in the 1890s. Investigations take him to miserable dwellings of the local Estonian peasants, luxurious castles of German nobility that have sworn allegiance to the Czar, and to the depths of ancient forests where witchcraft is still practiced. Juhan is fighting crime and his own inner demons. He is considered mad and pronounced crazy. But by standing for justice and truth, at the end of the day, he is the sanest of them all.
75The Bog 2022
Young artist Toomas Haava returns from Paris, back to his brother's bog farm and wraps himself unintentionally in a conflict with the violent and terrifying Madjak, who is harassing a local girl, Hilda, also known as Wildcat. Enchanted by the mysterious beauty, Toomas finds himself in the middle of a fight for love.
65The Riddle of Jaan Niemand 2018
After ten years of war, plague and famine, the land is swept clean of people. The few remaining souls are scattered about, living in misery and lacking hope. An anxious silence hangs over the land. On one particularly starry night, two peasants find a stranger on the seashore.
75The Last Ones 2020
Tundra of Lapland, Finland. Rupi, a young man who fills his days dealing and drinking, works in a mine hoping to raise enough money to escape the desolate village where he lives.
60Mother 2016
A woman's adult son has fallen into a coma after being shot. Taking care of him at home, she has to face a whole town trying to solve the puzzle of what exactly happened.
60Mihkel 2018
Mihkel boards a ferry from his small town in Estonia to Saint Petersburg in Russia, on his way to Iceland, where he wants to make a new life for himself and his fiancée, Vera. His friend Igor, who emigrated to Iceland a few years earlier, convinces Mihkel to smuggle two bottles of liquid amphetamine and then seek payment from an Estonian priest, who is a business partner of Igor’s in Saint Petersburg. The priest is then to set him up in his new home and bring Vera over to join him. Rather than getting paid, he is instead coerced into swallowing seventy drug capsules to take on to Iceland. He arrives in Iceland and is picked up by Igor and his two Icelandic accomplices, Jóhann and Bóbó. However, in the next two days it becomes clear that something is wrong and Mihkel cannot pass the drugs. The Icelandic criminals become very nervous, and more and more frantic activity ensues as the situation becomes more serious.
70Set Point 2004
On one summer evening, four strangers are brought together by a mysterious murder. A case which at first seems like a regular crime investigation turns out to be something more - a tale of love, alienation and new hope.
70Red Mercury 2010
It's the early 90's. A new currency is in circulation in Estonia - the kroon. The former federal republic has become a world leader in non-ferrous metal exports. There is a relentless struggle around this criminal business. It brings new victims every day. Estonia ranks first in Europe in terms of the number of killings. This is just the beginning...
51City Unplugged 1993
In August, 1991, Estonia reclaims its independence from the USSR and brings to its national bank nearly $1 billion in gold bullion hidden in Paris for 50 years. Russian mobsters have a bold plan to hijack the gold after shutting down the capital's power at midnight
50Child Machine 2023
9-year old girl, vacationing with her parents in a remote bog, gets trapped in a secret bunker where an AI-startup is nearing the completion of super-intelligent AI. Both the girl and the AI want to escape.
45Baltic Storm 2003
A journalist from Berlin, Germany, and a Swedish lawyer discover the truth behind the sinking of the "MS Estonia" in 1994, where more than 850 people drowned.
46The Sleeping Beast 2022
A gang of five children spend their summer in an abandoned factory complex. When they are forbidden to go there by the factory owner for safety reasons, the children decide to ignore the ban. This decision changes their lives forever and the friends face a grim confrontation.
42Fire Lily 2018
The mystical and thrilling drama asks what sort of reality can give our life meaning. The film tells the story of Pia (38), an ophthalmologist, whose marriage has recently ended because she was not able to have children. As she strives to move forward with her life, Pia learns the unknown but also finds her inner strength. Unexpectedly, her deepest wish to become a mother materializes, but not quite in the way she imagined it.
50Golden Beach 2006
Retroband Evergreen's reunion party is ruined when Viktor, who was once the band's frontman, threatens to blow the house up for revenge of his sad destiny.
50Scandinavian Silence 2019
A recently released convict reunites with his sister. They set out on a journey but soon realize that years apart have made communication all but impossible.
40The Curse of the Werewolf 2005
Liina is a young actress at Vanemuise Theatre who gets Tiina's part in the new, postmodernist version of the play "Werewolf" by August Kitzberg. The theatre is haunted and the rehearsals seem to be cursed, artificial blood becomes real blood. The play won't be complete before the murder mystery is unsolved - and Liina is being taken back to the old theatre legends and intrigues of the past century.
40Frank & Wendy 2005
Two American secret agents - Frank and Wendy - are sent to the world's hotbed of danger, known as Estonia. Estonia is a silly place, perhaps even sillier than the agents themselves. Frank and Wendy, for whom saving the world is their daily work, achieve both mental and manual feats with the greatest of ease. It appears that nothing can prevent their ultimate victory, but go figure. The axis of evil does not wither and attacks the super-agents from where they can least expect it...
2860 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero 2011
An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 December 2011. A special projector was constructed for the event which allowed the actual filmstrip to be burnt at the same time as the film was shown.
20An Unusual Story 1974
A young investigator fresh from the university gets assigned an arson case. 18-year-old Epp-Kai has admitted to the crime but he cannot see the girl's motive. His partner, an experienced investigator, already has enough work and doesn't think it's necessary to have further conversations with the accused. The young investigator senses however that Epp-Kai is hiding something.
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