Estonia-Russia: Will film on Soviet-era 'Sinatra' warm icy ties?

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

TALLINN (AFP) — Music and the magic of celluloid may help warm icy ties between Estonia and Russia when a biopic on the late Estonian opera singer Georg Ots, idolised as a Soviet-era 'Sinatra', hits Russian cinemas this weekend.

"Russians over 50 know and love Georg Ots, an Estonian adored all over the Soviet Union. We all remember his beautiful voice," Svetlana Blinkova, a retired, 70-year-old Russian fashion magazine editor, told AFP.

"He was on the radio all the time," she recalls. "I have not been in cinemas for years, but I will definitely go to see the film."

The communist-era love story entitled "Georg" is set to the music of the baritone described as the Soviet Union's answer to American crooner Frank Sinatra.

The film came out in Estonia a...