Touched By The Unknown (2005)

A humble man becomes a new sensation on Estonian television in this satiric comedy set in the late 1960's. Mati (Tiit Sukk) is a friendly but nerdy guy who works for Estonia's state television network, where he's the cue-card man for Valdo Pant (Raivo E. Tamm), host of a popular and well-respected chat show. Another top show emanating from the studio is "Dit and Dot," a children's program which features Aunt Rutt (Ulle Kaljuste) and her puppet pals Dit and Dot. While "Dit and Dot" has a large following in Estonia, that's not the only place where it's attracting attention; Tipp (Peeter Oja) and Toivo (Robert Gutman) are aliens on the planet Mars who are fascinated with intercepted telecasts of "Dit and Dot," largely because the puppets look almost exactly like them. Tipp and Tovio travel to Earth with a plan to infiltrate the television center in order to find out what (if anything) the Earthlings know about them. Tipp is able to tap into the brain of easily-led Mati and take control of his body, but while the aliens try to find the truth about "Dit and Dot," Tipp's outgoing personality begins to manifest itself. Before long, the Martian-possessed Mati has taken over as host of Valdo's television show, earned dozens of new and powerful friends, and put the spark back in his marriage to Piret (Maria Avdjusko). But what's going to happen to Mati when the aliens accomplish their mission and head back to their home planet? Many of the characters in Kohtumine Tundmatuga (aka Touched By The Unknown) are based on actual Estonian television personalities of the era, in particular Valdo Pant and Aunt Rutt, both of whom were popular TV hosts. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi