Eesti in brief - 2012-08-23

  • 2012-08-22

The film “An Estonian in Paris,” or “Une Estonienne a Paris” received the Ecumenical Prize at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, reports ERR. The movie, praised by the jury for its elegance and acting, had its world premiere in Locarno on Aug. 4. The movie will be shown in Estonia starting from Oct. 12. The Locarno prize provides 16,654 euros for the film’s marketing. With a budget of 2.7 million euros, “Une Estonienne a Paris” was chosen as the first Estonian project for the Cannes Film Festival’s L’Atelier program. Lead roles are played by Estonian Laine Magi and French actress Jeanne Moreau. The film is a joint project by an Estonian-French-Belgian team of producers. Estonian filmmaker Ilmar Raag based “An Estonian in Paris” on the story of his mother, who came to the French capital in the 1990s to look after a suicidal woman. Once in Paris, his mother, Anne, felt “happy like never before,” Raag said. Some 300 Estonians lived in Paris in the 1990s; now the population numbers around 1,000 and includes a large number of artists of all kinds.

The City of Tallinn will launch its e-tickets system this autumn, reports Aripaev Online. “Helsinki has developed its e-tickets system for more than ten years, is still developing it and is paying 90 million euros for it; our procurement lasts for four years and will cost 4.5 million euros,” stated Tiit Laiksoo, a project manager at the Tallinn Transportation Department. From Sept. 21, passengers on public transport vehicles in Tallinn and in the Harju County will be able to use a new type of e-ticket that consists of a contact-less card with a chip and money that can be charged to it. The system will include 570 public transport vehicles in the City of Tallinn and 95 buses ins Harju County, which will be equipped with validators on which passengers place their cards for a moment when entering the vehicle. Managing director of Uhendatud Piletid (United Tickets) Kristjan Konks stated that the functions of the e-ticket cards are not limited to public transport: the system can also be used to buy tickets to museums and sporting facilities; there are plans to implement the system in pharmacies as well.

According to preliminary data provided by the 2011 population and housing census, 1,101,761 permanent residents out of 1,294,236, who were enumerated, were Estonian citizens, says Statistics Estonia, reports LETA. In comparison to the previous census (that of 2000), the share of Estonian citizens has risen from 80 percent to 85 percent. 85.1 percent of the enumerated permanent residents defined themselves as Estonian citizens, and 8.1 percent as citizens of another country. 6.5 percent of persons defined themselves as having an undetermined citizenship (so-called stateless persons). 3,116 persons did not specify their citizenship. In comparison with the 2000 population and housing census, the proportion of persons with undetermined citizenship decreased from 12.4 percent to 6.5 percent, and the share of persons who were citizens of a foreign country increased from 6.9 percent to 8.1 percent. Of all foreigners, the number of permanent residents who are Russian citizens is the largest – 89,913. There were 4,707 Ukrainian citizens and 1,739 Latvian citizens enumerated as permanent residents of Estonia as of Dec. 31, 2011. The 11th population census of Estonia was carried out from Dec. 31, 2011 until March 31, 2012.