Georgica

‘Lucky is he who knows the causes of things. There was once an island with people, with boats on his coast and his sea. There was the church and the Sunday service. There were cattle and the people lived. There were the voices of people and animals. It became deserted, empty… and Amen.’The protagonist in Georgica is Jakub Luukas. Before World War One he proclaimed God’s Word among the heathen blacks. In the meantime World War Two is already over, Jakub has passed seventy and his pulpit is in the ruins of the church on the island where he was born. His congregation consists of three beehives and an old horse. Jakub has really been left to guard this island, that is used as a firing range. Anyone who comes there is doomed to die. Even the dumb boy, who can only produce a high-pitched squeak when he tries to speak. Those attempts lead to coincidences in which the boy in his thoughts is back with his mother in the harbour – the place where no one stays.With Jakub Luukas the Estonian director Sulev Keedus proves that his country has to be re-inspired after the fall of the Soviet Empire. That is why Jakub cherishes the plan to translate Virgil’s pastoral epic Georgica in Swahili, to serve the lost spirits and muses.