MY FAMILY AND OTHER CLOWNS
Screening: Sunday, November 8, 2026, 12:00 pm
Co-Director Liina Särkinen will present a Q&A following the screening.
My Family and Other Clowns (Minu pere ja muud klounid)
Directors: Liina Särkinen and Heilika Pikkov
84 min. Estonia, 2025
In Estonian, English and Chinese with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Q&A to follow with the director.
Haide and Toomas are a married couple, with three children living in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in the suburb of Tallinn. They could be a perfectly ordinary family, but there’s a catch—the parents in this family are famous clowns, and one of the kids is autistic. Having spent 25 years building up their successful career in Estonia and abroad as Piip and Tuut, Heide and Toomas have been entertaining thousands of children while their own kids grow up on their own. As they reach a breaking point, they must make a decision—continue juggling their family and stage lives, or give up their dream and save their family. Can they have it all?
Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Doc@PÖFF Baltic Competition, Tallinn Black Nights and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia’s Annual Prize for Best Documentary.
Director bios:
Liina Särkinen is an Estonian documentary director and producer. She studied television directing at the Tallinn University and later earned a master’s degree in TV History and Film Production in London, where she also worked in immersive cinema and taught at Westminster University. Her notable works include the short documentaries Why Don’t I Leave? (2018) and Fuel for Life (2020), both commissioned by Estonian Public Broadcasting. Liina also runs the Kinomaja Film School and the youth film festival Koolifilm in Tallinn. My Family and Other Clowns is her debut feature.
Heilika Pikkov is an Estonian documentary director, cinematographer and editor. Her first feature documentary, Flowers from the Mount of Olives (2013), premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, and was very successful in Estonian cinemas. Her short documentary My Flesh and Blood (2018) won the Best Short Film of the Year at the Estonian Film and Television Awards. Together with Ülo Pikkov she runs the production company Silmviburlane, which focuses on documentary and animation. Heilika is also lecturer at the Baltic Film, Media and Arts School in Tallinn and one of the organisers of the Estonian-Finnish creative documentary workshop Ice and Fire Docs.s