EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based genre specialist Reel Suspects has acquired international sales rights for Estonian director Moonika Siimets’ absurdist comedy The Black Hole, which has been enjoying a buzzy run at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

The film revolves around the residents of a drab apartment block whose lives are upended when a black hole appears mysteriously in a lilac bush, and they find themselves confronted with aliens who change their lives forever.

Sirje and Maret, who dreaming of finding work abroad, end up in an extraterrestrial science experiment; Jüri, who is still living with his mother, falls in love with his lustful neighbor; Gertrud Mariliis, who dreams of a world without abusive men, finds shelter at fearless bodybuilder Uma’s apartment full of giant spiders.

The screenplay is inspired by the short stories ‘The Spider’ and ‘The Black Hole’ by Armin Kõomägi and ‘A Life Worth Living’ by Andrus Kivirähk.

With the film’s aesthetics taking their cue from the sci-fi works of David Cronenberg and Steven Spielberg, The Black Hole marks a radical departure for Siimets from her last fiction feature, the 1950s-set historical drama The Little Comrade.

“The Black Hole is a wild, cosmic thrill ride where aliens, lust, giant spiders, and existential cravings collide in a bizarre, guilty pleasure you never saw coming,” said Reel Suspects CEO Matteo Lovadina.

The film world premiered in the Fantastic Fest in Austin in September, and also played at the Warsaw Film Festival where it won the Free Spirit Award.

The film is produced by Tallinn-based company Amrion (The Little Comrade) in co-production with its long-time collaborator, Finland’s Aamu Film Company (Compartment No. 6, The Woodcutter Story) with the support of the Estonian Film Institute, Eurimages, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Finnish Film Fund, Tartu Film Fund, Viru Film Fund, YLE and Tugev Tuul Films.

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival runs from November 18 to 24.