A Butterfly’s Dream

The Seto-people are an ethnic minority from a region around Estonia-Russia border collectively known as Setomaa (the Land of Setos). Today, most of them live on the Estonian side of the conflicted border which has cast a deep crack across the historical heart of Setomaa. “If you are born a Seto, you remain a Seto” - as this phrase from Setomaa suggests, being a Seto implies being a possessor of a cultural past which one can’t escape. A Butterfly’s Dream is a story of three diverse Setos who in their own unique circumstances juggle between the exigencies of modernity and deep echoes of a cultural past. Stuck between these two competing worlds, they find a middle ground in their dreams which are considered pivotal in Seto beliefs. And only through their dreams they understand and express their innermost feelings and fears. (Estonian Film Institute)