Ash and Money

Tallinn, March 2010. The members of the Estonian NO99 Theatre company go on a full media offensive to launch a new political movement, called Ühtne Eesti (United Estonia). Their goal is to break open the country's rigid political system and radically change the corrupt political climate. NO99, the artist's collective of ten actors and two artistic leaders famous as well as notorious for their elusive and provocative work, are going into politics.

In the run up to the first party conference Ühtne Eesti is constantly in the news with clever propaganda, nationalist clamour, inflammatory press statements, provocative interviews, smart poster campaigns, catchy songs, slick videos, headline grabbing media stunts and all sorts of orchestrated scandals. 

The whole thing is a hoax though. The party, the movement and the campaign are a sharp parody on populism. Even so, Ühtne Eesti manages to gather massive support for their new movement (with many of their supporters probably not knowing that the party is fake). As the new party shoots up in the polls, the political establishment panics. What is it that Ühtne Eesti really want? Is it a joke, or does this new populist movement pose a serious threat to their power? After only 44 days of campaigning, the party's first conference attracts an incredible 7500 people. They're all witness to the unexpected finale of this great piece of political performance art, as the party reveals that this has been one of the largest social experiments in Estonian history. 

Ash and Money (2013) is a fascinating documentary about a fake political movement which gripped Estonia for 44 days. According to NO99's directors Ene-Liis Sempe en Tiit Ojasoo – who are also staging the opening performance at this year's Holland Festival, Die Stunde da wir nichts voneinander wußten (The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other) – the film uncovers the true danger of populism and the dubious role the media play. The immense project, which was officially called NO75 ühtne eesti suurkogu (Unified Estonia Meeting), turned the whole of Estonia into a stage, aiming to reveal and undermine the dark side of populism. This hyperpopulist experiment showed how easy it is to manipulate and inflame people who have no trust in politics. As one of the people in the film says: 'The fact that you're not interested in politics, does not mean that politics isn't interested in you.' 

The film makers documented the whole process in painful detail. They interviewed not only the makers behind the initiative but also the leading figures in Estonian politics who nervously witnessed the seemingly unstoppable march of NO99. The film also shows how NO99 set up this immensely ambitious project, the largest-scale performance artwork in recent European history, including all the emotional twists and dramatic turns behind the scenes. Ash and Money is NO99's first film project. It was shown previously at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2015) and at festivals in Canada and Ukraine. This year, the company make their Holland Festival debut.