IMBI PAJU
“...one can...read the books by Oksanen and Paju
in parallel, combine the former’s dramaturgic
drive with the latter’s reflective depth.”
-Pia Ingström, Klassekampen, Sept. 2012
“In 2011, I directed Purge by Sofi Oksanen,
at Iceland´s National Theatre. When researching the work, I discovered that Oksanen had been inspired by the book, Memories Denied by Imbi Paju. I read the book
and found it both overwhelming and yet
beautifully honest. It´s a great testimony to
the love that the author has for her mother
and her homeland, for humanity. It´s how
history should be written. It was essential,
both for me and my fellow artists, to have
such a source of knowledge and inspiration,
when working on Oksanen´s Purge. My utmost respect to Imbi Paju.”
- Stefán Jónsson, director and professor of acting, Iceland Academy of the Arts
By describing the fate of her mother – arrested, imprisoned, deported to the Gulag as
a young woman – Imbi Paju has, in effect,
told the story of an entire nation. Widely
admired in her native Estonia and elsewhere,
Memories Denied could bring that country’s
history alive for many others too.”
– Anne Applebaum, Author of Gulag
“Memories Denied is without question one
of the books that will contribute to both the
knowledge and the understanding of what
our Estonian sister nation and the other
nations that fell under the communistic
oppression after the Second World War were
confronted with.”
“Imbi Paju’s book opens doors onto dark
rooms.”
– Edward Lucas, author of The New Cold War
“Memories Denied is an impressive and essential work. An important contribution to
cultural memory in Europe!”
“One of the best books on the history of
Estonia and the fate of its people.”
-Prof. Peter Hanenberg
– Dag Hartelius, Ambassador of Sweden in Estonia, Svenska Dagbladet
FINNISH
BESTSELLER LIST
2006-12
SWEDISH
BESTSELLER LIST
2007-08
2011
CONCORD
PRIZE WINNER
2009
Foreign Ministry
Cultural Award
-Stefan Brunow, Arts and Culture
Journalist, Tv YleFem/Finland
2006
Pärnu Film Festival
Best Documentary
Imbi Paju [email protected] +358 41 70 45 480
Ms. Paju´s assistant. Marko Martinson [email protected] +372 585 86 911
IMBI PAJU
Film director, author and journalist Imbi Paju has won international attention with “Memories Denied” (2005), her awardwinning documentary film and book of the same name. Both the
film and the book deal with her mother’s experiences in a Soviet
slave labor camp, the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union
and Nazi Germany, and the attempts by totalitarian regimes to
destroy human memory. Paju has been praised for her ability
to visually portray traumas of the past, something that is hard
to do with words alone. “Memories Denied” shows us how the
tragedy of an individual family repeated over and over gradually
becomes a national tragedy, a part of the collective but interrupted European narrative, silenced by occupations and the cold
reality of politics.
“Memories Denied” has been translated and published in Estonian, Finnish, Swedish, English and Russian.
In 2007 it was selected for use in the Swedish school program
“Living History”, which deals with both Nazi and Communist
crimes. In 2008 the film “Memories Denied” was translated into
Russian, as was the book in 2009. Since then Paju has travelled around Estonia presenting the book to Russian-speaking
communities and has had the pleasure to meet with students,
teachers, community groups, and others.
In 2009, Paju and Finnish
writer Sofi Oksanen published
a collection of essays entitled
“Fear Was Behind Everything.
How Estonia Lost its History and How to Get it Back”
(WSOY) which further develops the same themes. The
year 2009 saw the premiere
of her new documentary
film “Sisters across the Gulf
of Finland”, which deals with
terror, totalitarianism and humanity in the search of truth. In
2011, Paju’s psychological-historical book “Sisters Across the
Gulf of Finland” was published and became a best-seller.
Imbi Paju has lectured and taken part in numerous seminars
and deliberations about the crimes of communism and historical denial. Discussions inspired by her book and film in
Estonia, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Taiwan,
Ireland, Greece, Israel and the United States have helped open
a dialogue in Europe as well as North America. This discussion
continues with increasing clarity and urgency.
MEMORIES DENIED
“Memories Denied,” is the untold story of a tragedy that has been exiled
from the collective memory of an entire nation. Estonian author and
filmmaker, Imbi Paju’s groundbreaking, internationally acclaimed work,
examines Stalinist terror through the traumatic experiences of her
mother and twin sister who narrowly escaped death and whose lives
were permanently impaired by the Soviet’s systemic cruelty and policies
of fear.
Imbi Paju examines the individual and personal impact of a totalitarian
regime that encouraged individuals to acquiesce and succumb to their
psychological dark sides and how that violent regime obfuscated of its
crimes by manipulating memory.
The message of the story is similar to the Jewish exhortation: be not a
victim; do not commit crimes aginst others; above all, do not remain a
passive observer in the face of evil.
“Imbi Paju’s book is equally impressive and neccissary. It
focuses on the denial of atrocies suffered in Estonia during the Soviet occupation: both the unspeakable and the
unspoken. On the one hand it is about the denial of the
victim. And on the other, it is a history of perptrators and
the dark powers that followed.
As the author says, it is personal memories that give history a human face. The book does, however, also reflected
on the larger story: the history of a country that aspires
to retain its independence - and has put its hopes into
the EU for freedom and security.”
Imbi Paju’s book is an important contribution to a critical update of cultural memory in Europe. Such stories are
critical, because only they can remind us how secretly
memories can be denied.
Prof. Dr. Peter Hanenberg
Professor of Cultural Studies
Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Lisbon
man relationships.
Paju in parallel,
...one can...read the books by Oksanen and
latter’s reflecthe
with
combine the former’s dramaturgic drive
ish – and
Finn
and
tive depth. No author is an isolated island,
Nordic – literature needs Imbi Paju.”
Pia Ingström, September 2012:
reading for those
“I can recommend two books that make good
es of Oksanen.
them
large
wishing to get a deeper insight into the
mentary filmI’m thinking of the works by the Estonian docu
Sisters across the
and
ed
Deni
ories
maker and author Imbi Paju: Mem
her documenfrom
rial
Gulf of Finland. In both books she uses mate
titles, but deepens the
tary films (2005 and 2009) bearing the same
tions on the sexualised
subjects in well-documented, essayistic reflec
propaganda over huviolence of the occupation and the power of
ntly acting head
Pia Ingström is a critic and scholar, curre
sh newspaper Hufof the cultural editors at the Finland-Swedi
vudstadsbladet.
Bokmagasinet/
She writes for the Norwegian newspaper
and critKlasskampen as one of the Nordic writers
ics in the column “Nordisk råd” (Nordic Council).
SISTERS ACROSS THE
GULF OF FINLAND
SISTERS ACROSS THE GULF OF FINLAND: WATCHING THE PAIN OF OTHERS
Publisher: LIKE 2011, Finland, Estonia and Sweden
The psychological-hictorical best-seller novel, Sisters Across the Gulf of Finland, is a story about how Estonian, Finnish and
other Scandinavian women around the Baltic Sea worked together to prevent the onset of crisis and war through their own
unique actions.
“Sisters Across The Gulf of Finland” describes the choices of European women and sisterhood before the war, as well as
the verbal and psychological conflict that the propaganda propelling from the prejudices of the Soviet Union has left for
Europe as a legacy. When the war broke out between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, the occupied areas were subjected
to terror which destroyed the women of other Baltic countries and Poland. After the Second World War, Estonian members
of Naiskodukaitse (Women’s voluntary defence organisation) were transported to the Gulag and the Finnish Lotta Svärd
organisation was declared fascist and banned on orders from the Soviet Union. And thus, an important part of the history of
European women fell into oblivion.
“Sisters Across The Gulf of Finland” reveals the pains left to us as an inheritance by the past. Imbi Paju examines the way
in which we look at each other, ourselves and our history. The stories of these women refresh our memories and call to mind
the pages of our story hidden in the silence of history.
“I find myself now believing that, in the spirit of Dante’s divine author genius, Imbi Paju’s book can coach us – as individual citizens, as
independent nations and members of ever growing national organisations – to grow ourselves, and to grow a moral cosmos to combat and
treat evil – repression, submission, decimation and devastation.”
-Heikki Majava, psychiatrist, psychologist and psychosemiotician, Finland
“As certainly as Paju believes that man can be changed, she also unwaveringly believes in the healing power of calling forward and unravelling the nightmares of the past. Unprocessed stories breed pain; the stories which are talked of, in turn, help understand the past and avoid
evil deeds of the future.”
– Rutt Hinrikus, literary and memoir scholar, Eesti Päevaleht newspaper