Quality of life in the Baltic countries

People/ in general/ haven't lived like this since the beginning of 1990s- at least in my country, which is one of the post-communistic countries, as well.Even back then in communism(in 1970s and 1980s )people didn't live like this- of course, some did but majority didn't. I don't know, however, what it was like in other countries since I didn't experience it, but I doubt strongly that the life was in 2002 as it was shown in the film.
I think there are poor people and areas where people live in horrible conditions all over the world, practically in every country, but one can't take 1 film as a realistic depiction of living conditions in a country.


Get back you stupid bird,so I can love you.-Dr. Sheldon Cooper

Definitely exagerrated, tho those big apartment complexes still do look depressing, since they were built in a hurry during soviet time and usually people with lower incomes live there. They DO love showing us live like this in the movies I`ve noticed-that we are mostly russian speaking population in a piss poor conditions etc. Dunno why. We do pretty well considering the frozen-in-time period that being part of the ussr was (we now have free healthcare, free education, fast growing economy and progress on computer sciences among other things, you just have to want to live better and study, and there are oppportunities. Sitting on your lazy ass living off on benefits only works in scandinavian countries but even that is about to end soon..).

You must be pretty ignorant about life in European Union and particularly about ex-Soviet countries. Poor people live everywhere just as such countries as France, Germany and Belgium have their own dangerous areas. But it doesn't mean that EVERYBODY live in conditions like that in Estonia.

I was born in Poland in 1991, grew up there. Until I was 11, my family and I lived in a two bedroom apartment. 5 people in 2 rooms. But besides lack of space it wasn't that bad, we always had hot water and whatnot.

When you say "European people" that comprises of a whole lot of people. No, the majority don't live like in the movie. However, a SIGNIFICANT (but not the majority) amount of people in CERTAIN European countries do live like in the movie. Here is a link to people in Europe that live in worse condition than portrayed in the movie (some lack running water and electricity):

http://www.dw.com/en/inside-europes-slums/a-18011677

I've been to Poland a twice, once this past summer, and didn't stay in a hotel either times. I rent out apartments. It was nothing like this.

Spent 6 months in Belgrade Serbia. It ain't like this either.

I am sure all throughout Eastern Europe, there are probably SOME people that live this way, but not many.

In reality, you can find this situation in ANY country in the world if you know where to look, even in good old sweet America, England, Canada, etc.

I come from Latvia. Nothing like that these days. In 2002 we already did pretty well although you might find districts like the ones in a movie if you tried really hard. It was different story in 1990s, especially in the beginning. I remember when I also dressed in fake "Nikes", low quality synthetic dress etc., nobody had money, organized crime was rampant and you also heard stories about women (and young boy) trafficking. Producer did his job pretty well, but you can see that he is a foreigner. There is no cursing which is very common between teenagers. Russians are usually much more emotional. Dialogues felt "stiff" for me. Actress is very good and very authentic young Russian woman. You sometimes meet these kind of people between Russians - very warm and light beings. You have to also take into account that she hadn't almost no contact with West and didn't even speak English at the time of filming. I think this adds to the quality of the movie.

I remember watching Scotland play Estonia some time in the 90's (and it wasn't the game where Estonia decided not to turn up :D)

It was in Tallinn and the feed we got in Scotland was the Tallinn feed and every time someone scored it came up in massive pixelated letters in the middle of the screen "Scotland 1 - Estonia 1" or whatever the score was. This was at a time where everything in the UK was CG and animated and looked sleek and this was like something we had in the 50's and my dad just laughed his arse off and said "Good progress comrades!"

I know a lot has changed now and it really kicked in around that time, but in 1995 or whenever that was it was like a blast from the past.



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