Valentin Kuik
Valentin Kuik (born 27 January 1943) is a prose writer, film director and scriptwriter.
He was born at Zabolotye village near Novgorod in Russia. In the same year, the family moved to Estonia. In 1961, Kuik completed Puurmani Secondary School and thereafter worked at Kabala 8-year School as a teacher of physical education. After military service, he settled in Tallinn. From 1966–1968, he worked as a lighting technician on Estonian Television and from 1968–1970 as a puppeteer at Tallinnfilm film studio. In the early 1970s, Kuik studied film direction at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography under the supervision of professor and film director Mikhail Romm. In 1975, he graduated from the Institute cum laude. From 1975–1992, Kuik was a director and scriptwriter at Tallinnfilm studio, later he has made documentary films at Eesti Telefilm and other studios. Valentin Kuik has been a member of the Estonian Writers’ Union from 1997.
In the second half of the 1980s, the journals Looming and Vikerkaar started to publish Valentin Kuik’s stories and scripts with lively film-like scenes. Valentin Kuik’s collection of short stories Geiša (‘Geisha’, 1998) contains comical stories dealing with the paradoxes of freedom. The novel Poegade mäss (‘Revolt of Sons’, 1997, 1st prize at the novel competition) depicts a degrading hysterical actor. The characteristic features of the author’s prose are plentiful associative connections and slowly opening subtext.
L. P. (Translated by I. A.)
Books in Estonian
Novels
Poegade mäss. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1997. 175 lk.
Ja sinu kätes on põrgutuli. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2014. 208 lk.
Short prose
Geiša [novellid]. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1998. 159 lk.
Film scripts
Keskea rõõmud. Stsenaariumid. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2005. 420 lk.
Ma olen ilus, ma olen tark, ma olen tugev: stsenaarium. Tallinn: Kultuurileht, 2007. 67 lk.
Perekonnavaled. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2013. 147 lk.
