The spark of the idea for this film was born years ago, when Teele met an 18-year-old English Morris dancer who revealed that the dancing made her happy, but she was too afraid to talk about it to her friends as they made fun of her when the subject came up. The movie’s executive producer is Nick Barton, who produced the UK hit comedy feature films “Calendar Girls” and “Kinky Boots” the Dutch producer Lesley van Dijk is also on board. Rein’s dad (played by Estonian actor Reimo Sagor) is Estonian and mother Filipino and what starts off as Rein’s simple wish to dance and connect to his dad’s culture, very quickly becomes a double life that he is struggling to maintain.
He joins them in secret, knowing that his cool skateboarding friends would not approve of this hobby and the new community of dance friends of various ages.
Arguably the first feature film in history that has Estonian folk dancing at the centre of it, the movie is about a 17-year-old Rein (played by British actor Kim Last), who discovers a group of Estonian folk dancers practising in London. Now, she is raising money for her next movie, “The Secret Folk Dancer”, via the Estonian crowdfunding platform, Hooandja. “Losing Us”, her short movie about refugees and human trafficking, has been selected for screening at the International Human Rights Film Festival in Albania from 18 to 23 September 2023. Since then, she has made several films, receiving awards at film festivals and acclaim from Steven Fry, an English actor and broadcaster.
In Estonia, Teele Dunkley, who comes originally from Põhara village in Pärnu County, is probably best known for directing the music video, “Vihma loits” (“Rain Spell”) by the Estonian folk music group Greip, back when she had freshly graduated from the film school in the UK. Estonian World talked to Teele Dunkley, a UK-based Estonian filmmaker, about her life and work and her upcoming movie project, “The Secret Folk Dancer” – a film about the Estonian-Filipino Rein, who discovers a group of Estonian folk dancers practising in London, and joins them in secret, knowing that his cool skateboarding friends would not approve of this hobby and the new community of dance friends of various ages.
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