The Dragon’s Egg + Epilogue

Asked once which of his works made him most proud, Allan King cited Warrendale, A Married Couple — and this 1999 film, which marked his return to documentary filmmaking after a 15-year absence spent directing TV drama. The Dragon’s Egg profiles a remarkable effort at ethnic reconciliation and peacemaking  in Estonia, where a sizable Russian minority, planted there by Stalin and left behind by the collapse of Soviet Union, is regarded by the Estonian majority as a dangerous "dragon’s egg" — a demographic time bomb that threatens to destroy their culture. When a team of American social scientists offers a $50,000 grant to any group of Russians and Estonians who can successfully work together on a socially-useful common goal, a Russian-Estonian woman spearheads an effort to turn an abandoned Soviet army building into a community centre. Old ethnic enmities prove hard to overcome, and progress comes only slowly. King’s four-minute short Epilogue documents a screening of The Dragon’s Egg held for the film’s subjects and will follow the feature."Peers into some of the more troubling questions of human societies...Documentaries such as this are rare...King has understood something important about the human condition: We are more ourselves when we are observed" (Globe and Mail). Colour, 110 mins. + 4 mins.