Kusagil Alpides: „Hukkunud Alpinisti hotell“ ja imaginaarne Lääs
Somewhere in the Alps. Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel and the imaginary West

Summary/Abstract: This article adds to the substantial existing discourse on the enduringly popular Soviet Estonian sci-fi film Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel (dir. Grigori Kromanov, Tallinnfilm 1979), examining it as a rare attempt of late-Soviet film-makers to represent life in the contemporary West. There is evident friction between the film’s narrative – a kind of morality tale in the guise of a whodunnit, where the narrow-mindedness, moral and ethical shortcomings of the Western characters create a tragedy with a potentially cosmic dimension – and the subtext of presenting life in the reprehensible West in a rather alluring manner, condensed into the microcosm of a fashionable, hedonistic hotel set in a breathtaking ‘Alpine’ landscape. The article’s focus lies on the intriguing setting of the Estonian science fiction film Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel. While the context of late-Soviet film and television production includes a considerable number of fiction films with settings outside of the borders of the Soviet Union1, these were generally set in the past or in the future; yet Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel, with its up-to-the moment design choices, aimed to convey the present (and over time acquired a distinctly retro appeal). The film’s events take place in an undefined country in the Alps, its meticulously crafted environment and the mentality displayed by the characters far removed from the Soviet reality, and a subtext of longing for the unattainable seemingly reflecting the frustrated desires of contemporary Soviet subjects.

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