Ilmar Taska
Ilmar Taska (born in 1953 in Kirov, in a family of exiles) is a well-known Estonian film director, screenwriter and producer, famous for his debut novel “Pobeda 1946”, which was translated into 14 languages, won several literary prizes. The novel realistically recreates the oppressive environment of fear and suspicion in post-war Tallinn, when Estonia was separated by the iron curtain.
Taska’s dystopian novel “Eliziejus.com” (Elüüsiumi kutse) depicts the near future in a European state (perhaps Estonia or Lithuania), whose sovereignty is threatened by an oligarch, the owner of a popular virtual reality portal. The book is particularly relevant because the pandemic has closed many of the world’s population at home, and work and leisure have moved to a large extent into personal space. Technology remains almost the only means of communication with the outside world. One of the main themes of the work is the manipulation of people, involving them in politics, with the help of virtuality and social media. “Eliziejus.com” depicts the world of tomorrow, the question is raised whether there are forces in the global arena that can not only purposefully change the reality of society, but create a glamorous substitute for it. To take us across the threshold from where there is likely no way back.
