Lennart Meri (1929-2006) will go down in history as President of the Republic of Estonia (1992-2001). But Lennart Meri is also an internationally acclaimed filmmaker. He shot ethnographic documentary films, often as Finnish-Estonian co-productions, centring on the Finno-Ugric peoples between Hungary and Siberia. His work was subject to restrictions under Soviet rule - but now his films about the Sami and the Seto, the Komi and the Nenets and their respective ways of life, rites and religions are unique, high quality cultural testimonials. Director Jaak Löhmus recounts Meri's committed work by means of filmic and acoustic documents and interviews of Meri's collaborators. The result is a vivid portrait of a well-travelled, polyglot man who developed an early interest for the Finno-Ugric languages when deported to Siberia as the child of a diplomat, who introduced readers and cinema audiences to the indigenous peoples of north-eastern Europe in his books and films, including "The Winds of the Milky Way" (1970) and "The Shaman" (1997).