Mees, kes teadis ussisõnu by Andrus Kivirähk

Animals, birds and plants, even planets, participate in Estonia’s history. In Ivan Orav’s view, Estonia’s fate is aligned with that of the whole world. Ivan Orav recalls the first Estonian republic period, 1918-1940, when violin-playing could be heard even from the moon and the birch-trees bore apples. Ivan Orava mälestused expresses one of the central tricks in Kivirähk’s work: to talk about well-known, given events in history from an unexpected, often comical or absurd angle. (Orav=squirrel Ilves= lynx Meri=sea the latter are names of Estonian presidents.) As series about Ivan Orav was made for Estonian Television the leading role was taken by the actor Andrus Vaarik, who has remained the personification of Ivan Orav in other television series and plays, for example in Kivirähk’s stage adaptations Meri ja Orav and Orav ja Ilves. The book Ivan Orava mälestused ehk minevik kui helesinised mäed ('The Memories of Ivan Orav, or, the Past as Light Blue Hills') appeared in 1995. One of Kivirähk’s most significant characters is Ivan Orav, a comic figure suffering from the national pathos, the stories of whom began to appear in Eesti Päevaleht in 1992.

Kivirähk’s first play was staged in 1992 at the Puppet Theatre and bore the name Vanamehed seitsmendalt ('The Old Men from the Seventh Storey').

Kivirähk published his first humorous articles in the journal Pikker at the age of 15. Since 1992 he has worked for Eesti Päevaleht, in which appeared a large number of his texts which have later come out in book form. In the early nineties Kivirähk worked for various newspapers as an editor for culture and humour. His works have been extensively dramatized and screened.Īndrus Kivirähk graduated from secondary school number 32 in Tallinn in 1988 and from his journalism studies at the University of Tartu in 1993. Kivirähk is one of the most celebrated and popular Estonian writers of the modern period. VIII 1970) is an Estonian playwright, commentator, prose-writer and children’s author.

Mees, kes teadis ussisõnu by Andrus Kivirähk