“Homing Beyond” is Terje Toomistu's documentary about young people who have left Estonia for various reasons.

At the heart of the film is a generation born after Estonia joined the European Union and who decided to go abroad to work, study or explore the world. But years later, returning to Estonia is often not as easy. The new place of residence often offers attractive career prospects and better living conditions, and important close relationships have developed. People fall in love and get married, find new comfort zones and ways to step out of them again.

“Homing Beyond” brings to the viewer a story about Estonians with colorful destinies living in different parts of the world, who honestly and openly share their personal stories, thoughts and feelings about migration, belonging and roots.

About the director

Dr Terje Toomistu is a documentary film-maker and an anthropologist, a Research Fellow at the University of Tartu’s Department of Ethnology, whose prime areas of focus are gender, mobility, and affect. She received her PhD degree in Ethnology as well as two MA degrees (cum laude) in Ethnology and in Communication Studies from the University of Tartu. She has been a Fulbright Fellow at the University of California Berkeley and a visiting researcher at the University of Amsterdam, Department of Anthropology. She has also lived and studied in France, Russia, and Indonesia. 

Toomistu’s major research projects cover Indonesian gender and sexuality and the late Soviet non-conformist youth. She has curated exhibitions in U.K., Germany, Canada, and Sweden, and given lectures and seminars at universities internationally. With a filmography including „Veins of the Amazon“ (2021, co-directed with Alvaro Sarmiento and Diego Sarmiento), an award-winning „Soviet Hippies“ (2017) and „Wariazone“ (2011, co-directed with Kiwa), her work as a documenatry film-maker has been featured widely in international press, including The Guardian and The Economist.