1713 Matches Found
Stylized as silent cinema, the film connects political and philosophical extremes of 1913 in a story of a young man participating at the creation of a new world. This mysterious adventurer, who was known as Peter the Lett, gets involved in a tragicomic and surreal race from a routine clerk job and a romantic passion in Riga to preparation of the world revolution in Vienna, psychoanalysis at Freud’s salon and seduction of Mata Hari in Paris.
It is 1991 in Latvia and nineteen-year-old aspiring cinematographer Jazis’s whole world is thrown into chaos as he is dragged into the people’s peaceful protests against the Soviet Army’s attempted takeover of power in his country.
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.
The documentary chronicles the life stories of two brothers, Kristaps and Krists. Kristaps, the elder brother, is disabled and has trouble talking, but he can rap. His younger brother Krists is one of the best freestyle BMX bikers in Latvia.
An American, with a past as a successful musician, makes a living by playing at weddings and the likes in Germany. Then he gets an offer to tour in East Europe. During his travels he gets insight and finds true love.
Anastasia is 13 and her sister Diana is 11. The two sisters live in a Latvian orphanage. When they find out that an American family is ready to adopt them, Diana cannot wait to move to the States, while Anastasia is less excited about the idea of leaving her home.
Faced with obstacles to the further education of his daughter Tabita, who has Down's syndrome, Andris is forced to accept the new reality of life. Between conventional norms and unconventional solutions, Andris is faced with a difficult choice - to save his marriage or to ensure a fulfilling future for Tabita.
Imants Veide is writing a script about con artists and their schemes. Together with his friend Harijs Kuharjonoks he's trying them out for real for greater authenticity, but gets too entangled in real criminal schemes. More and more colorful characters appear on the horizon, but Imant's main adversary on the road to criminal excellency is his Neighbour, a true iron lady with balls bigger than all those involved combined.
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.
There are about 250 people with a unique ancestry. Livonians – one of the smallest and most endangered nations. Each of Livonians has a duty to preserve their identity and the great history of their ancestors. Trillium follows the footsteps of a poet and researcher Valts Ernštreits, who is one of 20 people able to speak fluent Livonian – an indigenous language related to Estonian and Finnish – in his efforts to look after the language and culture of these ancient settlers of the Baltic Sea coast.
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.
A documentary about Milda Palēviča (1889–1972), Latvia’s first female philosopher and a doctoral graduate of the Sorbonne, whose independent spirit and intellectual freedom endured despite the hardships of the Soviet era. Facing personal tragedies, a stifling daily reality, censorship, and the destruction of her academic career, Milda nevertheless preserved her inner world and commitment to thought. Her legacy survives in nine diaries written between 1911 and 1972—an extraordinary chronicle that offers a unique female perspective on the dramatic social, political, and cultural transformations of 20th-century Europe.
A boy's body is discovered in a peat field, and a local drunk confesses to a decades-old murder. Policeman Broze reopens the case and is forced to confront his own role in the tragic game played by boys 30 years ago—a day he can't remember or forget.
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.
In this movie (based on a true story) within a movie, a director tries to film the tale of an old KGB activist living in a parish house. In the summer of 1941 the activist tortured and killed Latvians in the cellar of the house. Although the old man hires others to brick over the cellar door, the murdered people keep coming through the stones and never leave him in peace. Unbeknownst to the film makers, the "real" KGB activist, now an aged drunk, is milling about the film set. Moreover, the director and lead actor are competing for the love of the lead actress, and the film's producer wants the director to re-shoot parts of the movie.
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.
An absurd game of “finding happiness” is being played by local Latvian coyotes* and illegal immigrants on the Russian and the European Union border. It is a game with no winner – all participants are driven to play by the sense of despair. While one side leaves home and undertakes a perilous journey to the other side of the globe, hoping to spend the rest of their lives in a free country, the other side risks their freedom to earn a chance to stay right where they are, in their homeland. *coyote – someone who smuggles illegal immigrants
Three best friends have to attend funeral, organize a stag party and to be on time for wedding. Personal problems and close time draw three friends into crazy adventures.
The Poet is fighting writer's block. He is writing his first poetry book called "Lemon moon", but can't finish it. In the writing process the Poet meets his Loneliness a.k.a White clown and Love a.k.a Red clown. These clowns become his muses and they challenge the Poet to look inside his soul to find what he himself has hidden there.
Moving from Latvia to exotic Indonesia has proven to be quite a challenge for Paula’s (10) family. Her Mother has a hard time adapting to the country. Her sister, Kate (14), is entering puberty, and her Father’s workaholic nature is causing tension in the family. Luckily, the local boy Akhim (12) offers a ray of hope by telling Paula about special Shaman living in the jungle who has a superpower to bring Christmas everywhere. That must be Santa Claus himself! Kids join on a joyful adventure to find Christmas in the Jungle!
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.
A love circle between a dishonest government employee, a freelance actress, a passionate dancer, and godmother of a local mafia cartel. It could be serious if it wouldn’t be so funny.
Vitaly Mansky’s intimate and insightful new documentary finds him crisscrossing Ukraine in the wake of the Maidan uprising, which has left his relatives scattered on both sides of a highly charged and dizzyingly complex political situation.
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 true story of a 17 going on 18 year-old boy called Modris. He’s a guy who goes to school, has a girlfriend and some good friends. He has a small gambling addiction, which makes his relationship with his mother difficult. It’s also hard because the two of them live alone and the mother doesn’t miss a chance to remind him that his father is in prison and that Modris has a bad gene. Their relationship boils over when, in the middle of a Nordic winter, Modris pawns his mother’s electric heater in trying to squeeze a win from a slot machine. She betrays him to the police and Modris is sentenced to two years’ probation. That is when his adventures with the Latvian justice system begin and he sets a new goal: to find the father he has never met.
Drowning in unpaid bills, an actress-slash-waitress hatches a plan to rob her workplace. When the heist goes wrong, she must give the performance of a lifetime to clear her name.
The story of the secret of self-creativity, the loneliness of the soul, the meridians of con-sciousness and the scope of man. Ilmārs Blumbergs (1943-2016) is a concept in life than can be classically proven if we analyze his work in set design, poster art, painting and multimedia work. The personality of Blumbergs, however is a shifting and intangible material which ensures superior value, wonderfulness and intimacy to all that he created. Those who analyze his art and world perceptions, recognize the work as seeming to come from antiquity, but it can never be catalogued or recorded in bookkeeping. How fortunate that it also cannot be consumed.
An ancient Latvian folk tale is the basis for this colorful animated feature in the tradition of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. A vengeful sorceress casts a kingdom’s princess into a deep sleep at the top of an icy mountain, where she awaits release from the spell that will destroy the land. Of all the men vying for the honor, the shy outcast son of a family of thugs is the most unlikely. Director Kalnaellis brings a playful sense of humor to the characterizations and adds zippy contemporary elements including a chorus of wisecracking crows. (Gene Siskel Film Center)
Riga in the 30s. Wild bohemian lifestyle is the name of the game for every artist worth his salt. A young man from the countryside, poor but ambitious, arrives in the capital, where he hopes to make his mark in the artistic circles. What follows is a string of events, fraught with confusion and misunderstanding, hilarious and heart-warming at the same time.
A female boxing tournament in honour of Women’s day is held. The athletes gather in a high school gym and test each other's limits while their all-male trainers heckle from the sidelines and enjoy the tumbling of under-age cheerleaders, showing the grace and irony of a national holiday celebrating women.
When the leader of a brutal criminal community violates the rules of historical regulations for 15 years, a hostile chess player hits through a dozen bodyguards and begins a fight to restore justice.
A historical thriller about Latvia in 1939 - a year before the Russian occupation.
A young Latvian boy's life faces changes as his country is occupied by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
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.
An intimate portrait of Mariano "Cronopio" Gedwillo, an Argentinian clown in Riga, as he transforms ordinary life into wonder through the magic of the circus — and teaches others to do the same, all while battling his own loneliness.
The epic film is based on the motifs of Vilis Lācis' novel "The Zītari Family". The tragedy of the Zītari family is a model of Latvian national history. With the beginning of World War I, the patriarchal way of life of Captain Andrejs and his wife Alvīne, their children Kārlis, Ings, Ernests, Elza and Janka changes, with years spent at work and in rare, modest celebrations. Kārlis voluntarily goes to the front, Ingus disappears without a trace on long sea voyages. Not wanting to live in the territory occupied by the German army, the Zītari evacuate to the distant Altai region. The unusually difficult living conditions and the drastically changing political situation of the post-revolutionary period also affect each member of the Zītari family. When the opportunity arises to return to Latvia, Andrejs and Alvīne are no longer among the living. The old sailor's nest has collapsed and the young Zītari are no longer able to preserve their father's house - all the property is stolen.
The personal story of a woman struggling with an inherited illness, as told by Signe Baumane, the Latvian director-animator living in New York City. With humour and courage, the director sets out on a challenging journey to discover her family’s best-kept secret. Featuring five stories about the courageous women in Signe’s family and their battles with madness, visual metaphors, surreal images and director’s narration.
Nils and his two best friends are invited to a 25 year reunion for their student years. Nils is given the task of holding the main speech. This comes at a bad time. He is troubled with his self consciousness, eyesight, hemorrhoids and age bothering him.
Markuss must adapt to a new life living with his granny in the countryside. After Emīlija – a neighbor’s daughter – throws some contemptuous remarks about the boy’s father, the boy decides to teach her a cruel lesson. This has severely negative consequences which resonate throughout the village. The only person Markuss can relate to is an old sailor living in the nearby woods. They inspire each other and keep each other’s secrets. It is only through an accidental turn of events that Emīlija’s mother’s intended sanctions against Markuss and the boy’s reputation in the eyes of the inhabitants of the village radically change.
Renowned German organist Anna discovers her Latvian husband's involvement in a corruption scandal, shaking the foundation of their life together. Can she come to terms with this new reality about her husband?
MONA is a modern and thrilling drama with erotic and fantasy elements. In a rural area where a slaughterhouse is the only industry lives a mysterious nature child Mona. The dull routine of villagers is broken by a city businessman Thomas who comes there for his uncle’s funeral and to sell the inherited estate. Meeting Mona throws Thomas in a dangerous maelstrom of illusions, passion and obsession.
Edmunds Berzs is an architect who has achieved a comfortable life, but this causes him unease, so he decides to go to the country house where his mother lives. There he wakes up to find himself locked in a cage in the middle of the forest. Edmunds, paradoxically, finds the tranquility he was looking for.
A love triangle - a terminally ill university teacher, a blind girl and a young bard. In the background of it all - the wild arrival of the capitalism, political conflicts, city life and the beautiful nature of Latvia. In the end love will conquer everything, though not everybody will live to witness that.
Five stories and many more lives that are affected, they flow by each other and sometimes intersect. In one way or other we talk about emotional scars that each of us carries around. Events take place in a space of a few days as our heroes try to cope with their past and move on with their lives.
Lords of Riga allows to see an insight into a passionate subculture of bike couriers. Weaving their way through the urban traffic, they have become silent and sometimes unnoticed witnesses of everyday life in Riga as well as examples of our modern-day society. What is freedom to this bunch of rebellious messengers and where it ends?
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.
There is no end to transformations. Different living beings arise from each other, pass into each other as in an endless string of surprises and fun.
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.
Gints, a quiet young man, becomes the housekeeper of Emilia, an aging composer consumed by anxiety ahead of the last concert of her career. Their uneasy relationship hides a truth Emilia could never expect.
For Victor, a bright but bored journalism student, the summer comes with bad news – his girlfriend Yvette is leaving for art school in Amsterdam. Victor desperately wants to go with her to live the bohemian life, but he has just three months to raise some money. He turns to a dangerous business to fulfil his dream
Each knot on a red string marks a man’s journey through life and the sacrifices he makes. Far from home, he struggles to balance duty, dreams, and family.
A man arrives to a flat to start living there, only to discover a young woman with a child already present in the flat.
This Rain Will Never Stop takes the audience on a powerful, visually arresting journey through humanity’s endless cycle of war and peace. The film follows 20-year-old Andriy Suleyman as he tries to secure a sustainable future while navigating the human toll of armed conflict. From the Syrian civil war to strife in Ukraine, Andriy’s existence is framed by the seemingly eternal flow of life and death.
A cat wakes up surrounded by water and must learn to survive.
After a skateboarding accident, Hugo (13) develops magical superpowers. He quickly becomes the coolest kid in school but now has to choose between status and friendship.
At the age of 24, Rex was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him paralysed. Now bedridden and depressed, Rex continues to exist because of his mother, who despite her age and ailments works and cares for her son. Between painful sleepless nights, his fantasies and his desires Rex will be forced to solace.
Inta is a brusque, crusty woman who lives alone on the edge of a picturesque marsh. One day her solitude is intruded upon by the arrival of a documentary filmmaker. In his eyes Inta is an outstanding would-be film protagonist but the wild woman would rather put a curse on the importunate intruder than let herself be filmed. But the filmmaker's persistence finally succeeds in melting the ice of Inta's heart... just in order to break it soon afterwards.
Žanis Lipke, an ordinary blue-collar worker in Latvia, embarks on a covert operation. Despite his family’s hardship under successive Soviet and German occupations, Lipke tries to save local Jews from Nazi persecution and certain death, moving them from the Riga ghetto to an underground bunker hidden on his property.
There is a moment in the lives of emperors, which follows pride in the boundless extension of the territories we have conquered, and the melancholy and relief of knowing we shall soon give up any thought of knowing and understanding them.