OEF film and discussion evening “One-Way Ticket to the West” held at Artis Cinema
On 26 February, partners, friends, and board members of the Open Estonia Foundation gathered at Artis Cinema for a film and discussion evening organized by Open Estonia Foundation. The event featured a screening of the documentary “One-Way Ticket to the West”, created by Tarvo Tammeoks and Kristjan Pihl.
Following the screening, an engaging conversation took place with OEF director Mall Hellam, communication expert Raul Rebane, and journalist Hannes Rumm. Together with the audience, they reflected on Estonia’s democratic journey and discussed how democracy and civil society can be protected and strengthened in the years ahead.
“Is the ‘one-way ticket’ a destination or an ongoing journey? We have bought the ticket and arrived, but what kind of West are we actually living in today?” asked Hannes Rumm, framing the central question of the evening.
The filmmakers noted that when the Open Estonia Foundation was established, Tarvo Tammeoks was only five years old and Kristjan Pihl had not yet been born. While working on the film, they discovered many important developments in Estonia’s recent history that they had not previously associated with the foundation, such as the network of public internet access points created across the country in the 1990s.
“We didn’t set out to make a film about an organization,” said Kristjan Pihl. “The deeper we went into the story, the more it became a story about people, relationships, and even love.”
During the discussion, Raul Rebane highlighted three key factors behind Estonia’s success: the legacy of the first Republic’s twenty years of independence, the influence of Finnish television, and the role of the Open Estonia Foundation in fostering open communication and civic engagement. Mall Hellam added that access to Finnish public broadcaster YLE played a particularly important role.
“The information we received from Finland helped us understand what was really happening in the world,” she said. “At the same time, the understanding of parliamentary democracy from the interwar independence period was almost in our collective DNA and we managed to revive it.”
Speakers also emphasized that freedom and democracy cannot be taken for granted. Extremist movements are gaining visibility, and disinformation spreads rapidly through social media. Values once considered stable are increasingly contested.
“Democracy is not a cost, it is an investment in the future,” Hellam stressed. “It is our insurance policy.”
Hellam also reflected on the foundation’s sustainability and thanked George Soros, whose early support helped Estonia during the country’s first decades of independence. After 2011, however, maintaining long-term support became more challenging.
A major turning point came when the foundation repeatedly won the competition to operate the civil society fund under the European Economic Area and Norway Grants. Through this programme, the foundation has supported numerous Estonian civil society organizations. OEF recently won the programme again, which will allow the foundation to support NGOs in Estonia with more than one million euros per year over the next five years.
At the same time, Hellam noted that ensuring sustainable support for civic initiatives remains a challenge.
“If you want to do things professionally, enthusiasm alone is not enough,” she said. “Especially during periods of budget cuts, many initiatives may disappear and restarting them later is much harder.”
Raul Rebane also discussed the global spread of political communication strategies associated with Arthur Finkelstein, which rely on demonization, fear framing, and polarization. These tactics include dividing society, amplifying insecurity, undermining trust in independent media and experts, and replacing fact-based debate with simple emotional messaging.
“These are not random developments but systematic strategies aimed at weakening democratic institutions and making the public sphere easier to manipulate,” Rebane said, stressing the importance of critical thinking, media literacy, and a strong civil society.
The discussion also turned to civic education. Margit Sutrop emphasized that the limited scope and uneven quality of civic and values education in schools remain a challenge. This directly affects how young people, particularly young men, understand democracy, gender roles, and social responsibility.
Participants agreed that schools must go beyond teaching institutional facts about government and actively promote understanding of fundamental rights, critical thinking, civic engagement, media literacy, and respectful public debate. Without systematic civic education, democratic values may remain abstract rather than becoming part of everyday life.
Audience raised concerns about how to encourage young people to participate more actively in public life and how to create spaces where they can engage and be heard.
“Young people need places where they can meet, talk, and be listened to,” said Maiko Kesküla, head of the NGO Sõbralt Sõbrale. “When we spend time with young people and truly listen to them, it has real power.”
The evening concluded with a shared reflection on the challenges facing today’s world, from polarization and disinformation to regional tensions and Russia’s ongoing aggression. Yet the speakers emphasized that democratic societies must remain confident in their values.
“We must resist disinformation, deliberate attempts to divide society, and fear-based narratives,” Mall Hellam concluded. “But we must also understand the deeper causes behind them - long-term inequalities, tensions, and deliberate manipulation strategies. Civil society, independent media, and informed citizens all have a role to play in addressing these challenges.”
The documentary is available on Jupiter and on the Open Estonia Foundation’s YouTube channel (with subtitles in English).