Kivirähk says literary classics outshine today’s screenwriters

Writer Andrus Kivirähk told ERR’s Ringvaade that classic works should not be radically reworked, saying the authors who created them were more talented than today’s screenwriters. He was speaking after watching Finnish director Antti J. Jokinen’s feature film Kalevala: Kullervo’s Story.

“I did not get exhaustive information about Kullervo’s story from the film. It was changed quite extensively, which always surprises me,” Kivirähk said.

He compared altering a classic story to taking apart an expensive antique clock and then finding that it no longer works after putting it back together.

Kivirähk said the film reminded him somewhat of the Tom and Jerry animated series, in which the cat is repeatedly hit over the head with a stick.

“Poor Kullervo is also beaten for two hours straight. It gets a little tiresome, and it is a shame that an authentic Kullervo was not brought to the screen,” he said.

He recommended a production of the story by VAT Theatre, directed by Aare Toikka, in which Pääru Oja plays the lead role. “You can really learn Kullervo’s story there,” Kivirähk said.

According to Kivirähk, Kullervo’s story is a relatively small part of the Kalevala, resembling an independent novella with little connection to the rest of the epic. It is a story of revenge in which a son seeks vengeance for his parents’ deaths and for being sold into slavery.

He compared Kullervo with Hamlet, who also avenges his father’s murder, but said the two characters were fundamentally different. Hamlet is a sensitive and hesitant prince, while Kullervo is a wild and powerful man who reaches for his knife before he starts thinking, Kivirähk said.

He also rejected comparisons between Kullervo and Kalevipoeg. While Kalevipoeg is a positive character who protects his people, Kullervo is driven almost entirely by revenge and has practically no positive programme, he said.

“Classics should not be tampered with. Those who created them back then were certainly much more talented than today’s screenwriters,” Kivirähk said.

He said adaptations could be shortened, but should not add substantially to the original or radically change the nature of its characters.

“One thing is to use a work as a starting point and create an entirely different work from it. But when I have adapted Tammsaare, Luts and Vilde, I have tried to treat the authors with great respect,” Kivirähk said. “You can, and must, cut things, but you must not add to them or fundamentally change the nature of the characters. That is not very respectful towards deceased colleagues.”

Kivirähk said a film about Kalevipoeg should be made as an epic, with modern motives given to the characters while keeping the broad plot intact. Viewers should be able to say they genuinely understood what happened in Kalevipoeg, he said.