Discoveries from Latvia World Cinema

A solitary cat, displaced by a great flood, finds refuge on a boat with various species and must navigate the challenges of adapting to a transformed world together.

Bohemian photographer Ivy, burdened by troubled marriage, starts a steamy affair with painter Elias, whose studio is in the same building as hers. Ivy gets swept up in whirlwind of passion, intrigues and lies, but soon her lighthearted affair becomes toxic, painful and tearful addiction. Ivy realizes that this relationship is destroying her and everyone around her. What is love? How is it born and why is it so fragile? Is ecstasis the pinnacle of human relationship?

Angelika's seemingly perfect life conceals a lack of fulfillment. While arranging her best friend's wedding, she meets Simon, her friend's daring and passionate brother who challenges Angelika's deeply held principles and life beliefs.

In 1937, amidst Stalin's Great Terror, a newly appointed prosecutor for the USSR is made aware of alleged corruption in the Secret Police, and takes it upon himself to investigate.

A young Russian artist makes an anti-war statement by swapping food labels with pacifist messages in a Moscow supermarket, leading to her arrest and the threat of a 10-year prison sentence.

The love story of sixteen-year-old Arturs is interrupted by the First World War. After losing his mother and his home, he finds some consolation in joining the army, because this is the first time national battalions are allowed in the Russian Empire. But war is nothing like Arturs imagined – no glory, no fairness. It is brutal and painful. Arturs is now completely alone as war takes the lives of his father and brother. Also, no progress is made in the promised quick resolution of the war and timely return home. Within the notion that only he alone cares about returning home and that his homeland is just a playground for other nations, Arturs finds strength for the final battle and eventually returns home to start everything from scratch, just like his newly born country.

Lost in remotest part of Eastern Europe, Sam is a foreigner, searching for his biological father Lagzdins where a minor road accident leads to a chance meeting with a pig-farmer's daughter, who captures him and makes him a forced laborer on the farm.

On his deathbed, the reigning king bestows power to an unexpected heir who must find strength within himself to unite his people against the violent crusades which threaten their freedom.

Kirikou's grandfather thinks that the story of Kirikou and The Witch was too short, so he proceeds to explain more about Kirikou's accomplishments. We find out how the little boy became a gardener, a detective, a maker of pottery, a merchant, a traveler and a doctor.

Western frontiers of the USSR, 1942. The region is under German occupation. A man is wrongly accused of collaboration. Desperate to save his dignity, he faces an impossible moral choice.

In 2021, despite all travel restrictions, Kārlis found a way to continue his journey around the world, and after rowing across the Pacific Ocean, he would set off across the next waters. After returning to Asia, he rowed across the Indian Ocean and then cycled more than 5,000km across Africa, arriving on April 4, 2024, at the same pier where he began his journey in 2016 - in Luderitz, Namibia.

Russian Federation, December 31, 1999. After President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of the country. From that day and for a year, Vitaly Mansky's camera documented Putin's rise to power. The story of a privileged witness. The harsh explanation of the reason why politics is the art of possibility of achieving the best with the support of many, but also of giving the worst in return.

A young woman in Stalin-era Riga joins a basketball team, hoping that she will be allowed to travel abroad and see her brother who's living in exile.

Liv's estranged alcoholic dad is about to die. The doctors at the hospital make no sense. Her boyfriend is about to have a midlife crisis. Her washing machine is broken. She thinks she'll be fine as these are regular adult problems. Spoiler alert: she won't.

Those of us who fly in airplanes probably don’t think about those who fly through Riga Airport on their own wings. But on any given day, up to 30,000 birds might visit the airport. And it would only take one… Airport wildlife control employee Mareks would like to go to church and light a candle for luck before he goes to work every day. In fact, all of us need that luck – it’s just that we’re not aware of it. Maybe that’s a good thing. Understanding wildlife that might turn up at the airport and making sure that the paths of birds, animals and airplanes don’t cross is a very real job.

After suffering a plane crash on a mysterious island, a young man embarks on an epic journey through forests, deserts and mountains trying to escape the shadow of a huge dark spirit.

A film about events in Latvian history during the heyday of the women's basketball team TTT. Five people with different worldviews and life experiences suddenly find themselves locked in a room by artificial intelligence. Like a dispassionate moderator, it offers a harsh game: in order to return to reality, each person must prove their ability to distinguish truth from lies about Latvian history from the mid-1940s to the 1960s.

After a gifted musician inherits a mansion after her long lost father dies under mysterious circumstances, she discovers his last musical masterpiece riddled with cryptic symbols that unravels an evil secret, triggering dark forces that reach beyond her imagination.

An observational reflection on the body and existing in one’s social as well as physical “skin”. “To break out of their traumas and the ingrained ideas of normality and the fictional ideal of femininity, and to make their bodies truly their own – this is the goal of two young women who use their bodies as a tool of protest and a work of art,” writes the filmmaker.

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

Weeping Rocks follows Art, an entomologist nearing the end of his life, who has spent over five decades walking the same ten trails, meticulously counting every butterfly he sees and witnessing the slow erosion of the world. His eccentric, patient research has uncovered patterns of decline that went unnoticed for years, revealing the deep environmental impact of detrimental human activities. As time reshapes the landscape and species fade, Art’s journey becomes a meditation on mortality, change, and the beauty of what remains.

The story of middle-aged Japanese woman Keiko, who has been living in a shell for decades due to a family tragedy in Kobe. The modest act of eating and the sensations it gives us provided Keiko a lifeline to survive. Unwillingly, she joins a group of Japanese women traveling to Northern Europe to participate in a kimono show in the fairytale-like art nouveau world of Riga. During her performance, Keiko suddenly comes face to face with her husband, who disappeared twenty years ago and now wants to read-dress their relationship and who Keiko has become.

We have sex in Latvia! A light comedy about building relationships - with passion and funny misunderstandings. All characters of this movie are in desire for flirt - be it at a swingers' party or during a sudden encounter with a beautiful stranger on the balcony.

The unlucky popular favorite and pop singer Alex in the company of the hired killer Stepan and nymphomaniac Nastya flee from all-powerful killers with heavy machine guns and a black hammer hired by the production center. The classic American genre in domestic spaces ...

A Latvian tragicomedy about a young artist who bears witness to the dramatic political upheavals of the WWII era. As brutal regimes come and go, his country, his village, his people, and even his heart are swept up in the inexorable currents of history.

Some people collect family albums. Sarmīte Sīle, an accomplished arts scholar, takes a nude photo of herself every ten years. Behind this unique series of nude photos that span a lifetime, is her story.

A comedy about sex, love, relationships, and taboo. In a multi-story narrative, we peer behind the closed doors of a seemingly normal city.

A local guide is asked to lead a group of influencers along the river of a remote valley. As they get deeper into the wilderness, their venture takes a frightening turn.

To mark the 140th anniversary of the organ at Riga Cathedral, Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna and the Latvian Choir are presenting a concert combining classical works (Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Liszt) and contemporary pieces (Sven-David Sandström), showcasing the rich sound of this exceptional instrument.

The film dramatizes November 11, 1919- a crucial date in the battle for Latvian independence. A year after the end of the official hostilities of WWI, a renegade German general and troops remain outside the Latvian capital. Latvian riflemen, most of them inexperienced volunteers, somehow managed to defeat a larger, better-armed force of German and Russian mercenaries.

Summer, 1989. City girls, Paula and Laura, spend their summer holidays in a small town with their cousins, Maija and Linda. Four girls, left unattended, enjoy freedom, imitate the life of adults, plunge into reckless adventures and get into trouble. Based on true events, nine-year-old Paula’s story of growing up is set against the background of time when Latvia made her first steps towards independence.

After a failed engagement, heartbroken art critic Kseniia finds herself embroiled in intrigue related to a Gauguin – but it might lead her to true love.

The Lesson tells the story of Zane, a devoted teacher mentoring the senior class in a Latvian high school. She tries to live her life in the most meaningful way possible. She takes her mission as a teacher seriously, and works hard to help her students develop their talents. Even so, as a younger teacher it’s hard for Zane to keep her distance from the class – the students soon become a sort of family to her. When she realizes she’s falling in love with one of them, the others start to feel left out. She faces a stark choice between personal happiness and the pressures of society.

In a 17th century Swedish Livonian village, constant rain and drunkenness prevail. When a stolen relic sparks witchcraft accusations, an 80-year-old self-proclaimed werewolf named the Dog of God arrives with a mysterious gift: The Devil’s Balls.

At 30, Margarita seems to have everything—a good career, a job, an apartment, and loyal friends—but she is still unmarried. When her friend sets out to find her a suitable husband, Margarita tests the candidates by pretending to be a single mother raising two children borrowed from her friend. But when she falls in love with a young pilot named Imants, fiction turns into reality after her sister dies in a car accident, leaving Margarita to take in and care for her sister’s two children.

After the lives of several people are tied into a intriguing knot upon meeting police officer Krasts one hot summer day, they’re all brought together again on a full moon winter night. Intrigue develops among a couple of lovers, Gints and Elga, three adventure-race participants with one woman, Renate, on their team, three generations of a family whose father, Karlis, died in a tragic hunting accident, Karlis’s daughter Aija, his former lover Livija, and a young girl hardened by life, who lives at a Christian home for expectant mothers. A detective twist is added by a bit of poison, which one of them will get.

A series of vignettes situated in an apartment in Vilnius conceive of the complexities of desire and love as seen through the fleeting experiences of five Airbnb guests, each in differing states of romantic entanglement and crisis.

Peter is just another "peter", so very ordinary. He works in an office where colleagues make fun of him and the boss makes sexual advances. His sick mother harasses him at home. Bit by bit his life becomes completely unbearable. Once, by chance, Peter happens to try magic mushrooms and this adventure turns into a move towards a different life.

A family film based on the book Bille by Vizma Belševica. An extraordinary, lonely yet spiritually strong little girl attempts to comprehend the adult world, which in her eyes is very contradictory, and to prove her own value despite the ignorance and lack of appreciation by her family in late 1930s. Bille tries to find an escape in her vivid imagination.

A classic story known all over the world that has captured and thrilled generations of children and adults now in puppet animation format. With all of the sense of childish enthusiasm intact, this romantic story disguised as humour and farce will once again delight.

From an early age, songs and fairytales convinced Zelma that Love would solve all her problems as long as she abided by societal expectations of how a girl should act. But as she grew older something didn't seem right with the concept of love: the more she tried to conform, the more her body resisted. A story about the acceptance of the inner female rebellion.

An ordinary old folks’ home on the Latvian border – one of many, where our parents, grand-parents and other relatives spend their old age. Theirs is the generation whose prime years co-existed with the Soviet Union, and who were promised: work, give all you can, and we’ll take care when you’re old. The system changed and the reality is different. How to live in this reality, accept the current rules, or live in the past and have regrets. We will touch upon their world, and the dreams and hopes of Vilnis, Imants, Alberts and Elizabete.

Ilze Burkovska, a little girl who is obsessed with stories of World War II and will be a filmmaker in a distant future, lives in Latvia under the totalitarian boot of the Soviets and the ominous shadow of the many menaces and horrors of the Cold War.

Maija is a young and ambitious journalist who wants to do something that no other journalist has dared. In order to conduct a groundbreaking research on Daesh, she pretends to be an Islamic convert and tries to join them.

In the final years of World War I a retired German field medic is sent to a remote sanatorium for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic mental disorders. There he encounters a strange, dreamlike state of existence that challenges his own war-torn mind.

An experimental short film, made as a cinematographic exploration of the female body in space.

During the Soviet time, choosing the fate of a rock musician was similar to being a dissident.

Geneva, Switzerland 1935. The first European Basketball Championship is about to take place. Basketball is still an unknown sport in Europe, and the national teams are meeting for the first time. Each wants the honour of being the first champion. Meanwhile in Latvia, coach Baumanis is convinced that he can assemble a team and take it to Geneva. He quickly learns however, that triumph and defeat are also part of the game. Coach Baumanis faces many difficulties, as well as unexpected help from those closest to him.

A year has passed, and characters of New Year’s Eve Taxi are counting hours until New Year’s Eve once again. All of them have experienced many changes... Andrejs is willing to stay at home with his fiancee, but as Ilze is expecting a baby, she has a lot of cravings, and Andrejs is ready to drive again to get her a burger, scallops, or strawberries. His neighbor, policeman Jēkabs, has been blackmailed throughout the year, but this time, by help of his new friend Anna, he returns to the “crime scene” to redeem his reputation. Innocent drive to the shop turns into a kaleidoscope of events and surprises jeopardising a family gathering.

DocuDrama about 13th century pre-Christian culture. Danish spy Lars enters the tribal lands of the Baltic peoples, where he takes part in religious rites, cruel forays, gets high during the Summer Solstice, becomes slave to the Couronians and even fights the crusaders. Who were the last pagans of Europe and how did they live? It is a unique trip into the textures of the past and into the unknown lands of the Baltic Tribes.

While Ukraine is fighting, how does it affect the rear? For a year and a half, Vitaly Mansky has portrayed his hometown of Lviv, where everyone’s existence is shaped by the Russian missiles’ flight time to their targets.

Self-proclaimed cryptocurrency expert Fatso is a middle-aged curmudgeon frittering away his days with video games and conspiracy theory videos. Obsessed with the concept of eternal life since childhood, Fatso experiments with various quack theories in the hopes of becoming immortal, despite his miserablism. When Egons and Carlos inexplicably appear outside of his remote woodland trailer, asking for an invitation inside, they bring glad tidings that he has recently been selected as “the chosen one.” Appealing to his nature as a “cowardly, passive, antisocial sluggard,” who has squandered his humanity so thoroughly that the transition to undead would prove practically seamless, the friendly duo make promises of a new, more fulfilling life as a vampire.

Closing day of the season in the boarding house at the Vietinghoff Palace in the province of Latvia. Here the material world and atmosphere of the 1930s are reconstructed as fully as possible. According to the rules of the institution, guests must abandon all their means of digital communications. And this is what they are looking for: to disappear, at least for a while, and become inaccessible to the outside world. The lingering summer heat drags the guests into an insane frenzy where surrealistic and grotesque situations build up an ambiguous comedy.

In 2014, Shakhta, Dancer, and Potter volunteered for the army in order to fight in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict in eastern Ukraine. Although the horrible things they experienced during two years on the front accompany them for every second of their existence, they try to return to civilian life. But the Russian invasion in 2022 forces them to again confront the war.

A veterinarian routinely goes on house calls to treat sick animals. He is able to save most, but one time he arrives too late. The animal dies, and that breaks the veterinarian's heart. One night the animals that he has treated come to him in a dream. He receives love and forgiveness. When Veterinarian wakes up, his heart has healed.

The film tells of faithful devotion to spiritual ideals. It is based on Riga St. Anna Stocken's Life Story of the Cistercian Monastery of Mary Magdalene.

A six-year-old boy plots to stop his "sweetheart", a grown-up woman in his pre-World War II Latvian village, from marrying.

Oleg, a young Latvian butcher, arrives in Brussels in the hope of getting a better salary in a meat factory. His experience turns short after being betrayed by a colleague. Alone in a country where he doesn’t belong, he quickly falls under the yoke of Andrzej, a Polish criminal.

The story of a man who started a new life in a fishing village. A life where everyone is busy with their own affairs and doesn't ask unnecessary questions. Such people are lucky in the fishing tavern "Valley of the Roses". But then a woman shows up there and everything changes.