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Ulrike Rohn, MEDIT’s board member and BFM’s visiting professor of media economics and management, published in Sirp (the Estonian cultural weekly) a review of the recent Estonian film Klassikokkutulek. You can find the Estonian translation on Sirp’s homepage, but here below follows the English language original.  I first learned of the film Klassikokkutulek when an Estonian acquaintance told me that she was very excited about this what she called ‘Estonian movie’ coming to the theatres soon. What caught my attention was that I knew a Danish movie with almost the same title, Klassefesten (The Reunion) from 2011. So I went online to see if and how those two movies were related and found that Klassikokkutulek was the Estonian remake of Klassefesten, and that Klassefesten had also been adapted to the Finnish market where it was released as Luokkakokous in 2015. In both Denmark and Finland, the local adaptations of the Danish original were a great success, making for box-office records. On YouTube then, I found that the similarities between the official trailers for the Danish and the Estonian movies very striking. The similarity is immense and it regards details such as the scratching of the bottom by one of the main characters. Comparing the trailers hinted at what was later confirmed to me when I watched the movies: That the Estonian movie was a remake of the Danish movie with only very little deviations from the original. The story is the exact same: A male character connecting with two of his told classmates for the preparation and joining in of their 25-year high school reunion - at a time where he struggles with his self-confidence and his aging that shows itself through worsening eyesight and Hemorrhoids. Having done research on international media trade and local adaptations of media with foreign origin for many years, I have not often come across such a close imitation of an original version. This triggers two questions: How much of an Estonian movie is Klassikokkutulek actually? And what is the rationale behind such a close replication? Let’s first take look at the typical rationale behind such a close replication. Two keywords are crucial for understanding the rationale behind international media trade and the decisions as to how much to adapt – or not to adapt - a foreign media product to a local market: Risk and culture. The media business is risky, and so is the audiovisual content production in particular. Why is it risky? Most costs associated with a movie occur before the movie is released and before it even becomes clear whether it will actually be a success with the audience. Film investors invest large amounts of money in, for instance, the story rights, the screenwriter, the cast, the costumes, the visual effects, the producer or the music, merely based on experience and guesses in terms of what may work with audiences. Even in the experienced Hollywood movie industry, the list of movies that have failed to attract enough audiences to recoup their production costs is long. Hence, importing the concept of Klassefesten that has been tested and proven very successful in Denmark and Finland can be seen as a strategy of risk avoidance by the Estonian producer. The idea behind this is that what has attracted record numbers of audiences in Denmark and Finland, is likely to also succeed in Estonia. Adapting something that already exists is also always cheaper than developing and producing something from scratch. Estimated budget numbers that are circulated in the Internet suggest that Klassikokkutulek’s budget may have been more than ten times lower than that of Klassefesten. Licensing the Klassefesten concept, therefor, can be understood not only as a strategy to avoid failure at the box office but also as a way to keep the production costs low. Buying the concept of a production and producing it for a local market as it was done with Klassikokkutulek is not so common for scripted fiction as it is for reality TV shows. Eesti otsib superstaari that originates in the UK and Su nägu koleb tuttavalt with Spanish origins are two well-known examples of foreign reality TV formats that have been produced for Estonian audience. An example of a local adaption of foreign fiction entertainment is Mustad Lesed, which is an adaptation of a Finnish series. As an adaptation of a foreign concept of a theatrical movie, Klassikokkutulek, however, is somewhat special. The large bulk of international activities in the film industries are international co-productions and not concept licensing deals. Co-production deals are usually signed with the intention of joining the financial resources and the wish to internationalize the appeal of a movie through the inclusion of an international cast. Where the intention of an international exchange, however, is the adaptation of an existing movie, this very often has the purpose of making the story available to a broader international audience. The original Swedish film version of Stieg Larsson’s book Men Som Hatar Kvinnor, for instance, was later produced for a global audience under the title The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. With the import of the concept of the film Klassenfesten, the Estonian but also the Finnish producers, therefore, chose a path not very common in the film industry. Risk avoidance and cost reductions seem to have been the guiding principles. WithKlassikokkutulek hardly differing from the original, Danish version, the question that comes up is: Why was the original version of the film not just imported for Estonian audiences? Given the cost structure of film production, the import of the ready-produced Danish original would have been the cheapest option. With the storyline and the jokes being almost the same between Klassefesten and Klassikokkutulek anyway, would it not have been enough to just release the Danish original? The answer is: No. And this is where the second keyword comes into place: Culture. At a time when media scholars were worried about a so-called US media imperialism as a result of the success and predominance of US imports, American scholar Joseph Straubhaar in 1991 introduced the concept of ‘cultural proximity’. He found that audiences prefer locally produced media over imported media because it is culturally more proximate to them. Just like in almost any country, it is also in Estonia the locally TV produced programs that lead the rankings. The story, however, is somewhat different in the film markets where it is the large Hollywood-based conglomerates that enjoy the infrastructure and financial resources that it takes to produce high-end movies and to accompany them with a global marketing machine. Smaller markets, such as Estonia, usually lack such resources and due to the small size of the own market, high production costs are very unlikely to be recouped. Producing its own movies in the likes of Star Wars, or Jurrasic World would not be possible for Estonian producers under local market conditions. The reason behind the global success of such movies lies not only in its universally attractive storyline, but also in its lavish and expensive production and marketing. Frankly, despite its box office success, the Danish Klassfesten is not a movie in line with Star Wars and the likes. It is questionable if the Danish version as an imported film would have attracted high numbers of audiences in Estonia. Hence, it makes sense that the movie was remade for the local audiences. The key element that makes Klassikokkutulek culturally more proximate to audience compared to a possible import ofKlassefesten is its Estonian cast. Estonian audiences go and see the movie because they want to see Mait Malmsten, Ago Anderson and Genka play in it. The chemistry between the local leads is the key success factor. What comes with the local hosts is, obviously, the local language. Character traits, jokes and authenticity are not lost in the translation process and through subtitles. Furthermore, the Estonian remake is shot at Estonian locations, familiar to most audiences, and the music adds a local touch to it. Yet, while the Estonian production exhibits some diversion from the original Danish production in order to better suit to the local audiences, it is striking how little is actually adapted. Insome way it makes sense, because much of the original Danish production is likely to have an international appeal. The nervous excitement that comes with the idea of a high school reunion and the fear of awkwardness, embarrassment and failure is a cultural universal - something most of us either have already experienced or can imagine. Reunions have the potential for slap-stick situations understood almost anywhere in the world. Likewise, the fear of aging is another cultural universal- most of us and so is the releasing effect of a humorous perspective on it. That is, the humor in Klassefesten is quiteFREE of cultural specificity. In contrast to irony, which is difficult to translate from one culture to another, the humor in Klassefesten is simple and can be easily understood.  It does not take any culture-specific knowledge to think that getting one’s family jewels stuck between the wooden slats in a sauna makes for a painful yet funny situation. Given that universal character and appeal of the storyline and humor of Klassefesten, it makes sense that the Estonian producer just took them from the Danish original. As such, the Estonian version can be seen as the result of an approach that adapts everything that needs to be adapted and that adopts everything that is possible to maintain. A comparison with the Finnish remake of Klassfesten, shows, however, that the Finnish producers adapted much more for its audience. What could explain such little adaptation by the Estonian producers, then? Local adaptations are costly. Numbers for the estimated budgets that are being shared on the Internet indicate that the Finnish film’s budget was a multiple of that of the Estonian film, which can generally be seen as a low-budget movie. Although both countries make for a small film market, the Finnish film market may just be a little bit larger to justify higher investment  in local adaption. However, it is questionable whether the low degree of adaptation is merely due to a lack of financial resources. It would not have cost much to change the color scheme and setting on the movie poster, for instance, as it was done for the Finnish adaptation. For most of the things, the Estonian producers probably just did not see a need for a local adaptation. Leaves us with the last question: How Estonian is Klassikokkutulek after all? Is it a product of Estonian creativity? Or is it a lame copy of something that has been proven funny and successful elsewhere? The success at the box office shows that the movie is a huge success with Estonian audiences. It is doubtful that it would have been more successful with audience if it had been more adapted. My Estonian acquaintance through which I first learned about the movie was excited about the upcoming release of this as she called  ‘Estonian movie’. She was excited about the fact that there would be a movie with some of her favorite actors that stands out from the usual output of the Estonian film industry that tends to make for more serious art movies. I am sure that at this point she was not even aware that this was a remake of a foreign movie. I am also sure that this would not have changed her opinion about it. Hence, rather than being a lame copy of something that exists elsewhere, it is a more like a genius copy. The only thing I am concerned about is the message the success of the movie may send to creative talent in Estonia. Klassikokkutulek may be an Estonian-produced box office record – but it is not Estonia’s creativity at its best. The message that the huge success of the marginally adapted foreign film may send to creative talent is that it is always safer and more successful to take in foreign concepts rather than risking creating and producing ones own ideas. Estonia has great talent with great ideas and skills. Films with Estonian contribution, such as The Fencer and Tangerine, have been positively recognized internationally. Still, there is a lack of self-confidence. The small size of the Estonian market and the resulting limited resources do not explain why it should be a Finnish director and a Finnish scriptwriter to bring the Estonian story of The Fencer to the big screens in Estonia, for instance. The learning from the success of Klassikokkutulek should not be that it is always better to hide behind the creativity that is produced elsewhere. Instead, it should be seen as a stimulus to come up with one own ideas and stories. Ulrike Rohn