1720 Matches Found
Alex is a perfectly ordinary young man whose life changes radically after receiving a strange message and meeting several strange characters who seem to have stepped out of the world of cinema. Under the influence of Zenon's paradox, Alex begins to see the world differently and discovers unusual abilities.
This film portrait of organist Iveta Apkalna reveals her journey from her native Latvia to the world's greatest stages. Her name is synonymous with virtuosity and complete dedication to music. "Iveta has the ability to bring music to life," says Finnish composer Esa-Pekka Salonen. The film shows the contrasts in Iveta Apkalna's professional life — from the glamour of the stage to lonely hours of rehearsal at night. The film features her performances with virtuoso violinist Hilary Hahn, outstanding conductor Paavo Järvi, and contemporary music composer Nico Muhly, as well as audience ovations and adrenaline.
A family drama based on the short story "The Edge of the Abyss" by Raimonds Trasuns.
Since Latvia regained independence in 1991, only a small number of all those who emigrated during the 1940s returned, though many of them had been waiting for the occupation to end. This is about the first generation of Latvian émigrés - those who came back, and those who chose to stay in the West.
There is a popular Latvian folksong which begins with the phrase "I was singing out high on a mountain". The irony of it is that according to physical geography there are no mountains in Latvia. So what exactly is the place where the Latvians are "singing out"? It may be safely said that it's the same place where they are skiing. That's how we make mountains out of molehills...Snow-covered mountains, to be sure.
A message brought by the wind urges a lonely man to go out to the city, but there is someone who does not want him to leave the room.
On the night of August 18, 1991, a coup, or putsch, was attempted in Moscow. The coup threatened to return the Baltic States to the occupation of Soviet Union. This documentary tells the story of how the event unfolded in Latvia.
A story about the Livonian (Liv) language going extinct, and about the people still trying to keep it alive.
Nikolaus von Himsel, accompanied by his tutor, embarks on a European tour, curating a cabinet of curiosities to garner acclaim upon his return. However, enticed by the chance to ascend Mount Vesuvius, a coveted aspiration among his peers, he rebels against his predetermined path. He goes on to explore societal diversity, encounter remarkable individuals, and uncover his genuine passions. This transformative journey leads to him overcoming challenges and embracing a life aligned with his true nature.
A story about human passions hidden behind the apparent sleepiness and tranquility of a small European town. Each of us strives for happiness. We seek fulfillment in love, children, religion, and work. How can we prolong our lives, live them to the fullest, and achieve lasting health and youth? It seems that disappointment and despair will never touch us...
Riga by night, two girls and a guy. Andris is a cab driver who mistakes the two girls for clients; they mistake the ride for an invitation to a fancy restaurant. The misunderstanding turns the night into a whirlpool of odd coincidences, pretense and giddy mischief.
In a Latvian bakery, Aina breaks 40000 eggs per day by hand, and she has done this monotone job for almost 20 years.
A story about Penguins. About their ‘consolidated’ society and unified thinking. About fashion and the crowd instinct. Yet despite all this, the protagonist is the Penguin who has always been regarded as the black sheep of the group. He is different…he has his own opinion.
An experimental film where imagination, creativity, freedom are intertwined. Young people paint in the courtyard of a Riga apartment building. A young man closes his eyes and imagines himself flying over meadows, forests and rivers.
A story about a boy's attempt to get his own hat. Based on the book and drawings of Latvian author Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš.
Marta is ready to do anything to seduce her mysterious drumming teacher Ivars. However, Marta’s provocations don’t seem to work on him. After many misunderstandings an unexpected friendship is born.
To be a harp player or a proffesional guard-for-hire? A young musician, at the very beginnig of his professional career. As many creative-minded young people in Latvia, he faces a dilemma: to devote his life to art or to change his profession and live a financially more guaranteed life. Young harp-player’s story and his creative road in the pragmatic world of today.
For 91-year-old Ruta acting is not just a career: it is her lifestyle. Once again, she starts working on a new role. This time the theme of the play provokes questions about her own life: how does one deal with ageing? And, most importantly, - is there a specific time when an actress should leave the stage?
Two girls on holiday find a diary in an abandoned boat and set out to investigage a mysterious light on the horizon.
In this documentary "Hat on pavement" the main characters of the film are young professional musicians who play music in the meat pavilion of Riga Central Market in search of a livelihood.
Five children started school in different parts of Latvia in 2015 and we followed them through their first schoolyear in the 2018 documentary “To be continued”. Now 14 years old, they are halfway to adulthood. Some have matured, some seem to be still lingering in childhood. Zane has traded her dream of a singing career for her passion for the basketball. Gleb fights in the boxing ring and puts his business talent to good use by selling rulers in class. Anastasia from Stoļerova in the Rezekne region rides horses and learns not to give up. Anete's mother has returned from England and they are now living in Riga and Anete now has a little brother. Kārlis, from Vidzeme, is still fascinated by tractors but now sows fields in a virtual computer game.
During Latvia’s centennial year, 15 filmmakers created each his own film portrait of a person living in Latvia on the background of centenary events. Documentary 2018 combines these stories into a unique poetic vision based on analogy with the documentary 235 000 000, a classic of the Riga school of poetic documentary cinema. This film is an attempt to make sure whether the codes of the poetic cinema are still relevant and accessible today.
A man living on a remote rocky island where only stone and ocean surrounds him, seems to do some meaningful task. He is carrying stones, sometimes burying them and sleeping on them. He continues doing the same tasks, never revealing to the viewer the reason of his work. “Sisyphus Condition” refers to Ancient Greek mythological hero Sisyphus who was punished for his self-aggrandizing craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it come back to hit him, repeating this action for eternity.
An animated film to celebrate the city of Riga's 800th anniversary. Justin, the chicken, longs to become a Golden Rooster and to guard Riga. The city is shown as a dream world full of mystery and strange creatures that live alongside people and are not that very different from humans.
An unemployed Latvian gets a job as an agent finding a house in France.
A desperate middle-aged alcoholic and a heartbroken young woman escape from a psychiatric hospital and embark on an absurd journey through the nighttime streets of Riga to save a cat and, perhaps, themselves as well.
The protagonist of the film, Viktors, after losing his eyesight not only gets over depression and sense of estrangement but goes on living a full-fledged life – he forms a relationship, finds strength and motivation for mental development. Aware of his difference from the ones who can see, Viktors does not feel unworthy and loses no hope. Instead, he perceives the inconveniences, caused by the elusive or illogical attitude of the society and lawmakers, with humor, as if they were curiosities.
What does it mean for a woman to take up the role of mother? The film follows four Latvian women during different stages of pregnancy. An ambitious dancer has to put her career on hold while being pregnant. A housewife expects her second child and fears postpartum depression recurring. An urban party girl becomes pregnant, decides to get married and move to the countryside to build a new home from scratch. A young entrepreneur and ex-punk welcomes her first child yet is haunted by the traumatic events from her past. All four women offer a unique insider point of view of pregnancy, as part of the footage is shot by the protagonists themselves. They go through a mix of emotions, highlighting that pregnancy, contrary to mainstream representation, is not only about the child - it is about the mother, too.
Little foxes march to the thunder of a drum. Will Dad manage to get them to breakfast?
In 1920, Franz Kafka wrote 120 letters to writer and journalist Milena Jesenská. A love which filled Kafka’s life with light and hope and, at the same time, illuminates his fears and the darkness in him.
"I have allowed myself to be selfish and do only what I like," said Imants Lancmanis. As a child, when he saw a picture of Rundāle Palace, the boy was disappointed: what kind of palace is that without a tower?! But it was in Rundāle that he was destined to build his dream palace 50 years ago. To experience victories and losses, joys and sorrows, happiness and misfortune. To measure the social hierarchy and turn down tempting job offers.
A young woman gets flashbacks from her previous lives - flashbacks of how she died. Is her fate doomed to repeat itself again?
Dinārs is a Latvian schlager singer popular with the ladies and known for his big cat mane. The eponymous film follows his path over a turbulent season of work.
Ingus is a man around forty, utterly happy with his bachelor life, until one day chatty Žanete moves in next door and upsets the usual course of things. He might, of course, ignore her, but some overwhelming force makes him act differently.
New Year's Eve. Taxi driver Andrejs (Lauris Reiniks) has almost finished his shift, when suddenly a forgotten present makes him recall the curious collection of that night’s passengers - a rowdy couple, a tired Santa, noisy mummers, a worried groom, and even a pregnant woman about to have her baby. Andrejs will play a role in each passenger’s story, but will he get to experience his own New Year's miracle?
Baron Munchausen’s string of victories against the Turks is disrupted by a love letter from his bride, Jacobine von Dunten, propelling the Baron into an adventure-filled journey back to her.
Latvian opera in 3 acts and 20 scenes, based on a novel of the same title by Victor Hugo.
Today they've become almost mythical, but in 1991 the Barricades were a reality of a national revival. The will of the three Baltic countries - Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, showed that they were sovereign nation asking to accept their rights. What was this phenomenon? Was it a romantic ardency, destiny, conjunction, or God’s gift? Politicians, journalists and guardians of the Barricades discuss this topic in the film.
A cinephile father and his son travel by car through Latvian countryside while trying to sell an antique piece of furniture in order to fund the son’s endeavour in filmmaking. The father dreams about his son’s future in film business, but his son has different plans for the future.
A documentary about Latvians in the United States.
Two young men decide to shoot a movie for a shortfilm festival in their school, but things go very wrong, when one of them starts seeing and hearing things all over their school.
In the heart of the city, nestled between office towers, stands a grand building no one talks about anymore: the No No Place Hotel. Once an upscale destination for business travelers and honeymooners, the hotel was abruptly and permanently shut down after twelve minutes of surveillance footage was seen by authorities.
This documentary tells the story of the daily life of the players and technical team of the Latvian Continental Hockey League (KHL) club Riga Dinamo during the 2012 season away games in the Gagarin Cup in the Russian cities of Omsk, Magnitogorsk and Khanty-Mansiysk. The film provides a glimpse into the game from the perspective of the players and technical team, starting with pre-game events, the course of the game, and ending with the victories or losses of the hockey game. The film captures all the emotions experienced by the players, which can be seen in the "live" commentary, both on the bench, during the games, and in the locker rooms.
Three friends dream of purchasing St. Bernard puppies. But obstacles arise along their path, which require resourcefulness and ingenuity to overcome...
The film only shows silhouettes of a speaker and his audience. While the speaker "speaks" at the microphone (his speaking is imitated by different sounds), the listeners are bored, but lights appear in their heads, symbolising thoughts and ideas. But the speaker has an oil lamp in his head.
A lonely woman, Zofia, lives in a radioactive zone. She tries to gather her courage to search for some company out there.
Farmers work and live in close connection with nature, its rhythms and changes, and have learned to adapt to any conditions. During their lifetime, they have to experience the change of seasons countless times, as well as many other cyclical phenomena, such as the birth of new calves, the clearing and regrowth of forests, etc. The farmer's best friends - dogs, cats - also play a major role in this cyclical life, accompanying them and keeping them company in their daily chores and moments of relaxation.
The film documents the production of Anna Ķirse’s contemporary opera in the forests of Finland.
The film Soup is the story of a trip in search of lost time. Only instead of Marcel Proust’s Madeleine cookie, the chicken soup by Podravka, well remembered by many generations in former Soviet countries and in Eastern Europe, is the triggering element.
Golf Clayderman. Art historians would call it "trash art", but the creators themselves consider it a moral hygiene, often found in Buddhist principles, which leaves behind the judgement of society and instead allows a carefree lifestyle. Tiny or overly significant - anything can be an ideal.
An absurdist farce centering around a school in post-Soviet Latvia. After a rather disgusting prank (someone defecates in the school attic), the tyrannical headmistress deems that no one can leave until the culprit is caught. When the photographer's pet python escapes, havok breaks loose.
Twelve-year-old Kir is travelling to a sanatorium in West Ukraine alongside his mother Olga. Surrounded by Carpathian mountains and with new unexpected acquaintances in their lives, each deals with a family trauma and tries to overcome an unresolved grief—the boy’s father, a Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier, went missing in the frontline.
What kind of masters have we been in our independent country? A quarter of a century ago these four men were among those who voted for a free Latvia. 2015 was the 25th anniversary of the independence declaration. Deputies from the then Tukums district were among of the voters on that day, the 4th of May. A look from outside of Riga.
World War II separated the Latvian nation into two parts. Fleeing Soviet occupation, a large part of the people left their homeland by the Baltic Sea and sought refuge in the West. New York’s Hell’s Kitchen district became their home and the core of Latvian cultural exiles became young poets and artists. The film traces across half a century to show their life today and what has happened to those young writers and poets (the Troubadour – Gunars Silins, the Internal Dissident – Janis Kreslins, Philosopher the Dionisios – Robert Muks, the Estranged One – Rita Gale, the Observer – Aina Kraujiete, the Outsider – Dzintars Sodums) in their effort to combine the trends of global culture with their ethnic identity, when two cultures, Latvian and American, intersected.
Nora Bumbiere (1947-1994) was one of the popular estrada-singer in Latvia. This will be a documentary about Nora. About Nora, who has left us an unforgettable musical story. A story that it's time to tell.
The authors of the film attempt to answer the questions: Why was the Latvian Legion created? Who were the Latvian legionnaires in World War II – victims, Nazis, or heroes? The film uses materials from the Latvian State Film, Photo and Sound Archive and the memories of former legionnaires.
Once you stand still, things will come up to you. (Gottfried Benn) Using tableau-like takes of different places of the Muscovite suburb (Moskatchka), a poor quarter of the Latvian capital Riga, the film shows fragments of the choreography of life and combines them to form a picture of reality. Without making any comments, the camera observes the people’s behaviour, which reminds you of the early Flaherty and how his camera “stuck to” his film heroes . It also reminds you of the beginning of film art when the recording of reality on a strip of film was an event, in spite of its accidental character.
Every day, come rain or shine, Theodore used to bike the seven kilometres from his house to the centre of the village to sit and drink beer in the bus stop. For him, no doubt, this place was the centre of the Universe. With his death, the centre has moved elsewhere, and the bus stop is just a bus stop again.