The Lost Dream

In the early 1990s, the old world disappeared faster than a new one could take its place. Western cars that had recently seemed like an unattainable dream began appearing on Estonian streets, becoming symbols of freedom, success and new possibilities. Photographer and director Sergei Zjuganov returns to his childhood memories and searches for the cars and people who defined that era for him. Their stories reveal Estonia's rapid transformation: the first car dealers and importers, street cruises and drag races, organised crime, the evolution of the police, and the courage to act at a time when the rules were still being written. The film follows the fates of rare Porsches, Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs, Ferraris and Dodge Vipers, yet it is not only about cars. It is about the people who took risks, experimented and showed an entire generation that life could be different. At the same time, it is a personal journey towards lost dreams, the legacy of fathers and memories that may soon disappear together with the people who carry them. The Lost Dream is a portrait of a decade in which danger and optimism, chaos and freedom, and the past and future all existed at once.