This presentation analyzes how national identity can be constructed and reaffirmed through visual representation in historic feature films. By focusing on Estonia’s film history, this presentation examines the relationship between culturally specific elements, formal ideals imported from Hollywood epics and embodiments of collective memory. Estonia regained its independence in 1991. After the end of everlasting decades of ravaging Soviet occupation, the taste of freedom needed also grounding of national identity affirmation. The local film industry, that functioned as a puppet for headquarters of Moscow collapsed altogether with the Soviet system. It took 12 years for a first historic epic titled Names in Marble to be made. Needless to say, that the principal aim of it was nationally defensive, as it depicted heroic actions of Estonians during World War I. This was followed by structurally similar films December Heat, which is about Communist coup d'etat of 1924 and 1944 that depicts dauntless actions of Estonians during World War II. Yet, it is captivating how the younger generation of filmmakers have turned away from epic war films and, instead of national identity, address Estonian collective memory. In the Crosswind dissects trauma caused by the June deportations of 1941 through tableau vivant’s cinematic approach. The Dissidents turns to humor in affluent retro-cliche’s of 1980’s. The Days that Confused is a bold homage to everything circulating in 1990’s that defined Estonia’s sluggish Eastern-Europness. Although historic films can function as providers of meaningful narratives of national myths, they can also reflect intertextual mediations between generations themselves with their values as historical beings, that are constantly re-encoded. The analyzation of those films reveals how generational structures are influencing dynamic ways of capturing both national identity and history into purposefully stylized time-capsule.