Latvian Documentary
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- DirectorIvars SeleckisThe Crossroad Street is a small street in the outskirts of Latvia's capital Riga, and its various inhabitants with their destinies, everyday routines and neighborly relations form the micro-model of society during the Awakening.
- DirectorJuris PodnieksPortrayal of rebellious teenagers growing up under Communist rule in Latvia.
- DirectorJuris Podnieks
- DirectorJuris PoskusStarsDaniels CirulisEriks PunculsTwo men in post-communist Latvia go around preaching Gods word and get involved into all kind of encounters.
- DirectorInese KlavaIvars ZviedrisInta 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.
- DirectorIeva OzolinaStarsIeva OzolinaZenta KruminaIlgaA detective story about the reappearance of a millionaire lost in Latvia in the 1990s.
- DirectorLauris AbeleRaitis AbeleStarsKaspars AninsKristaps BedritisLauma BalodeThese are religious rituals, magical and true, the Battle of Saule, the Crusaders battles, our ancestors fiery battles for the free land. Who were the last pagans of Europe and who did they believe?
- DirectorVitaliy ManskiyStarsVladimir PutinTony BlairAnatoliy ChubaysA rare glimpse at the young Putin and the vast political machine that brought him to power.
- DirectorEdvins SnoreStarsJon StricklandVladimir BukovskyVladimir LeninThe Soviet Story offers an alternative history of an Allied power, which helped the Nazis to fight Jews and which slaughtered its own people on an industrial scale.
- DirectorKristine ZelveStarsDaiga KazocinaMarina JanausAt the end of the Second World War, when the German army retreated from Latvia, it also took along 700 boxes of materials from Latvian museums. If not for a young woman named Merija Grinberga, the exhibition halls of many museums in Latvia would be empty today. Grinberga was the only volunteer who in 1944 went along with the train carrying the treasures of Latvian art in order to return with them back to Riga. The German occupying forces tried to take them away; the Soviet occupation forces brought them back; Merija completed her duty. As gratitude for her journey, Merija was sacked from her job at the museum and incessantly viewed with suspicion.
- DirectorAskolds SaulitisHistorical and chronological depiction of how formed the first volunteer Latvian Riflemen battalions and their battles in World War 1, Latvian war of independence and Russian civil war.
- DirectorIlona BruvereStarsImants StradsIeva Aleksandrova-EkloneNormunds BerzsIn two monumental symbols of Latvian national consciousness, the Brothers' Cemetery and the Freedom Monument, the sculptor Karlis Zale has immortalized his vision of the Latvian state and immortality.
- DirectorKristine BriedeAudrius StonysStarsHerz FrankUldis BraunsIvars SeleckisKristine Briede and Audrius Stonys's meditative documentary essay portrays the less-remembered generation of cinema poets of the Baltic New Wave. With finesse, they push beyond the barriers of the common historiographic investigation in order to achieve a consummate poetic treatment of the ontology of documentary creation.
- DirectorIvars SeleckisThe lives of 5 children are followed during their first year of school in different parts of the Latvian countryside: their school activities, their dreams and their family lives. Their stories are to be followed by the director in the coming future.
- DirectorAndris Gauja'Family Instinct' is a film about incest - an illegal act, social taboo and a violation of religious norms. Zanda is a 28-year-old woman, worn out by hard work. Surrounded by poverty and despair, she is trying to survive with her two children in a god-forsaken Latvian village. Her hardships can be traced back to living in a relationship with her brother Valdis. When Valdis is put in jail, the local community forces her to make a difficult choice: to stay with him or with her children. Despite her ill fortune, she manages to express her love for the children, still hoping to save her family. The film offers a tragicomic but highly authentic insight into the bleak reality of Latvian countryside today.
- DirectorDavis Simanis Jr.StarsGatis GagaJanuss JohansonsInga MisaneThe film seeks the fragile link between a pragmatically constructed performance and the world of the unconscious that lies within the music and the narrative.
- DirectorPeteris KrilovsStarsPeteris KrilovsTatjana ZelukinaEdvard KulaginA deeply personal view on the life of artist Gustav Klucis, one of the foremost representatives of early 20th century Russian avant-guard art, whose life drama reflects the tragedy of a whole nation during the years of Stalin's repressions. It is a story about boundless ambitions, hope, love and artist's responsibility that continues haunting him after his death.
- DirectorDavis Simanis Jr.StarsLauma BalodeGustavs BriedisGints GrubeTwo young boys are forced to escape their native city of Riga. Later these same boys turn out to be among the most extraordinary personalities of the previous century: one becomes a leading commie film director and the other a mentor to the entire British Empire. This story will reveal the secrets of the remarkably parallel lives between Sergei Eisenstein and Isaiah Berlin.
- DirectorArturs LapinskisStarsEdijs VitolinsBiographical story about a 23 year old guy who is a heroin addict, and how it's ruining his life.
- DirectorIvars SeleckisStarsKlaus Maria BrandauerJuris GornavsThe second part of Ivars Seleckis' trilogy about Crossroad Street - an 800m-long street in the Pardaugava district of Riga, whose inhabitants, their relationships and fates, have served as a testament to changing times. The first film's action takes place at the end of the 1980s, when the fight for national independence begins in Latvia. Ten years have passed, and the filmmakers return to the small street in the outskirts of Riga. How have the lives of the characters we previously met changed since the regaining of Latvian independence? Land surveyors have passed through Crossroad Street - buildings have been denationalized, allotted, divided. Not only have the property rights of neighbours changed, but also relationships in several of the families.
- DirectorIvars SeleckisStarsIeva MargevichaTalivaldis Margévics
- DirectorDzintra GekaToward the end of World War II, when it became clear that Latvia would be occupied by the Soviet Army again, some 150,000 people fled to Germany. These were representatives of various professions- farmers, business people, former politicians, the creative intelligence and ordinary working people- who had already experienced the horrors of the "year of terror." Nearly one million people from Eastern Europe flied the Soviet regime, Latvians, who were known as "deepers" (for "displaced persons") or as Little Birds of God, tried to establish "Little Latvia" at displaced persons camps for themselves as refugees. In the late 1940's and nearly 1950's, Latvian families from the camps in Germany traveled to Great Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia. When Latvia regained its independence, some of the emigres returned home, but most remain scattered throughout the world. This film speaks to destinies of families that traveled to Germany in 1944. World War II was drawing toward an end. The Red Army was once again approaching Latvia in September 1944. More than 150,000 Latvians fled West. They were people who did not want to experience the horrors of the Year of Terror once again. Latvians were housed in approximately 300 refugee camps throughout Germany. Officially they were known as displaced persons. They called themselves the stepchildren of God or God's lost sparrows. I plucked up my courage, climbed out the window and ran away. Away, away, away and once again away. I took what I was wearing - a short summer coat and my father's binoculars, which always hung by the window. Then I ran to the river. I thought that I had to walk along the shore of the river so that my dog would not track me. Perhaps he would chase me. There was bridge here, and the Rudzisi homestead was over there, where the trees are. Everything's gone now. Those are the Vidzemnieki residents, and they were deported on the morning of June 14, 1941. I saw that, and I've been terrified of Russians ever since. I don't know whether they were Germans or Russians, but we saw bombs falling on the city. It was so beautiful, like fireworks. We laughed, because it was wonderfully beautiful and interesting. Then one bomb fell across the street, and BAM! My brother, father and I collapsed because of the air pressure, and we slid under the piano. We children laughed and thought that it was the greatest joy. We no longer stayed there. We left Aizpute in October 1944. Horse-drawn carriage to Liepaja, and then we boarded a German transport ship. Only destiny or the will of God ensured that I didn't grow up in Siberia. My father and his family disappeared into the forest for a couple of nights. My godfather was shot, because he was too slow in climbing into the wagon. They wanted to take him to Siberia, but they shot him on the spot. It is good that we got out, because if we had stayed, we certainly would have been sent to Siberia. The German army entered Latvia and then found at the local police or KGB department that KGB agents had found us. They next day there would be an order to arrest and deport all of us. Grandfather would be arrested and shot. Who was threatened? The intelligentsia - local teachers and clergymen. Father knew that he could not stay there. He was in the Home Guard. World War II was drawing toward an end. The Red Army was once again approaching Latvia in September 1944. More than 150,000 Latvians fled West. They were people who did not want to experience the horrors of the Year of Terror once again. Latvians were housed in approximately 300 refugee camps throughout Germany. Officially they were known as displaced persons. They called themselves the stepchildren of God or God's lost sparrows. I plucked up my courage, climbed out the window and ran away. Away, away, away and once again away. I took what I was wearing - a short summer coat and my father's binoculars, which always hung by the window. Then I ran to the river. I thought that I had to walk along the shore of the river so that my dog would not track me. Perhaps he would chase me. There was bridge here, and the Rudzisi homestead was over there, where the trees are. Everything's gone now. Those are the Vidzemnieki residents, and they were deported on the morning of June 14, 1941. I saw that, and I've been terrified of Russians ever since. I don't know whether they were Germans or Russians, but we saw bombs falling on the city. It was so beautiful, like fireworks. We laughed, because it was wonderfully beautiful and interesting. Then one bomb fell across the street, and BAM! My brother, father and I collapsed because of the air pressure, and we slid under the piano. We children laughed and thought that it was the greatest joy. We no longer stayed there. We left Aizpute in October 1944. Horse-drawn carriage to Liepaja, and then we boarded a German transport ship. Only destiny or the will of God ensured that I didn't grow up in Siberia. My father and his family disappeared into the forest for a couple of nights. My godfather was shot, because he was too slow in climbing into the wagon. They wanted to take him to Siberia, but they shot him on the spot. It is good that we got out, because if we had stayed, we certainly would have been sent to Siberia. The German army entered Latvia and then found at the local police or KGB department that KGB agents had found us. They next day there would be an order to arrest and deport all of us. Grandfather would be arrested and shot. Who was threatened? The intelligentsia - local teachers and clergymen. Father knew that he could not stay there. He was in the Home Guard.
- DirectorRoberts RubinsStarsRudolf MingRudolf is a 13 year-old boy who is obsessed with film making. As a matter of fact, it is the only thing he is really fond of. Especially, he is carried away by the horror movies which he is drawing himself on long strips of paper and then demonstrating them on a wall, using an old slide projector. Rudolf does sound himself live, making unbelievable sound imitations. His films are like mini blockbusters with a strong Hollywood touch. The film shows the conflict between the imaginary world of the boy and the society surrounding him, where everybody tries to make him live according to certain rules and dogmas, but the outcome of the movie is very positive. As the family allows Rudolf to demonstrate his creativity fully, it causes a wide spectrum of emotions - from real fear to real fun.
- DirectorPeteris Krilovs
- DirectorKrista BuraneWhat does the question "to be or not to be?" mean to a person? Does the answer include only the biological difference between life and death or do these states interact with each other and are both a part of the life? How to overcome non-existence, how to achieve the consciousness of your existence and fulfillment? How to escape the emptiness of life? How to make life fulfilling? The protagonist of this film is the 86 year old director Olgerts Kroders, who commenced staging his fourth production of Sheakspeare's "Hamlet" in Valmieras Drama theater. The theater is more than merely his occupation, he not only works there but also lives and spends all of his time in it. The film depicts his routine, the rehearsal process up until the premiere and provokes a dialog about theater, freedom and solitude using four actors, who have all been Hamlet in the different productions of play.
- DirectorUldis Brauns
- DirectorUldis BraunsBiruta VeldreLaima ZurginaAn emotional and visually attractive portrait of timeless moments in human life. 235 000 000 was made on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1917 Revolution. Without any commentary, allowing images to speak for themselves to music.
- DirectorAntra Cilinska
- DirectorAntra CilinskaIn 1986 Juris Podnieks, the outstanding Latvian filmmaker, made "Is It Easy To Be Young?", where he held conversations "on equal ground" with young people who had taken their first independent steps in life. The problems they confronted were of a new nature for Soviet society then. The aim of this film after 20 years is to discover what happened to this rebellious generation. Through their stories we see life in Latvia after 20 years of independence. How have their lives, thoughts and attitudes changed? What do they think of life today?
- DirectorInara KolmaneStarsYelena BonnerAndrei SakharovThrough a vast coverage of exclusive archive materials and interviews and personally narrated by his wife, Yelena Bonner, the story of the life of Andrei Sakharov, the most famous Soviet dissident, Nobel Peace Prize winner and the creator of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, is revealed
- DirectorViesturs KairissIgor (30) has been living in the Zone of Chernobyl for almost ten years. He wanted to find peace and a chance to escape from the modern civilization. Psychological issues, both personal and global, are still troubling him. He embodies both harmonizing peace and supernatural stress. And an existential secret. A secret of the essence of life.
- DirectorMatiss KazaStarsAndris BerzinsBrendan Kyle CochraneNicki CochraneA 78-year-old Indian woman in New York is the world's most passionate theatergoer. Nicki Cochrane has been going to at least one play every day for more than 25 years, acquiring free tickets using a variety of ingenious means.
- DirectorAndis MizissStarsIneseKarlis
- DirectorTalivaldis MargévicsStarsAgnese BudovskaAndris GindraGirts LiuziniksA cinematic portrait of the first Latvian foreign minister Zigfrids Anna Meierovics and the conception of the Latvian statehood.
- DirectorMariya KravchenkoThe main characters of the film have made choices, which change their lives forever. A young man Yigal Amir assassinates the Prime Minister of Israel and becomes the most hated prisoner in the country. Larissa, who emigrated from Russia, mother of four divorces her first husband, marries the assassin and gives birth to his son. For many years the film authors have been trying to solve and perceive this complicated story. One of them, Hertz Frank, passes away during the shootings remaining on the threshold of the eternal mystery - life, death and love...
- DirectorHerz FrankA humanistic and up-close film about Waleri Dolgow who murdered a Latvian union leader in 1984. We see his trial, his imprisonment, his confession and his change.
- DirectorDzintars DreibergsStarsAivars RitenieksArnis RitenieksRaitis RitenieksA story about Ritenieks family. Aivars Ritenieks has been training his sons Arnis and Raitis in weight lifting since they were 2 and 4 years old. At the ages of 10 and 12 the boys change weight lifting for boxing. Young men are training hard and are facing bright careers as boxers. Unfortunately, their developing careers with bright future aimed at Olympic Games meet various obstacles.
- DirectorIvars Seleckis
- DirectorLaima ZurginaPoets, musicians and thinkers met at the "Kaza" cafe. What has changed in the meantime? Freedom and borders, today and the past.
- DirectorIlze Burkovska Jacobsen
- DirectorAnsis EpnersFour young men after university are sent to work as managers in colectiv enterprises (kolkhoz). How they try to achieve something better in soviet system.
- DirectorJuris PodnieksInterviews with last living Latvian riflemen. Volunteers who fought in WWI, Latvian war of independence and Russian civil war.
- DirectorAnsis Epners
- DirectorViesturs Kairiss
- DirectorMaris MaskalansLaila PakalninaThree elderly country bachelors idle away their time amidst semi-wild nature, closer to birds and pond fish than to humans.
- DirectorInara KolmaneStarsMarija Steimane RuchNorie TsurutaDocumentary "Ruch and Norie" is a human interest story about two contrasting people striking up a surprising spiritual relationship. Japanese student Norie Tsuruta travels to Latvia to study Suiti community where she meets one of the oldest Suiti women nicknamed Ruch. That changes her life forever and the close bond between them doesn't break even after the return to Japan. Norie wishes she had two bodies to be in both places at the same time. She thinks she has found her deceased grandma in Ruch while Ruch worries about Norie being "far out there" and trembles at every earthquake in Japan. Ruch and Norie prove us all there are no borders to a genuine human relationship filled with laughter, caring and love.
- DirectorHerz FrankA 10 minute long journey of emotions that befall children faces. Fear, Curiosity; a Smile. They all sit in a dark theater. What they see, we don't; we can only guess from their faces.
- DirectorIvars KraulitisStarsIlze ZarinaMonochrome split screen film. Left-hand side shows studio-based cellist playing the musical accompaniment to the film. The right hand-side shows exterior images of people in a cityscape, with main focus being on a girl's journey.
- DirectorLaila PakalninaA documentary film crew arrive at a Latvian garbage dump to investigate reports of a giant mutated worm living in the garbage. When the worm story proves to be a myth, rather than waste their trip, they decide to film the dump itself. Far from being a lifeless wasteland, the dump proves to be home to a multitude of birds and animals and a handful of people, all struggling to survive in an endless cycle of death, decay and rebirth. Insects and snakes, beavers and deer, men and machines play out their roles against the backdrop of an expanse of gently steaming garbage which, thanks to deft camera work, at times seems surreally beautiful.
- DirectorAivars Freimanis
- DirectorLaila PakalninaEvery 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.
- DirectorIeva OzolinaStarsRaitis OzolsSilvija OzolaMaris OzolsDissatisfied with his personality, a young mathematician from a family of divorced academics decides to punish his mother for wrong upbringing. A touching yet humorous story about a mother and son and the creative and destructive power of motherly love.
- DirectorDzintars DreibergsRihards OlmanisStarsJanis AmanisAinars BagatskisAndris BulisDocumentary film the Sixth Player follows basketball fans and their emotions throughout the European Basketball Championship in Riga in 2015. Basketball is being played for the fans and can't be enjoyed without the atmosphere created by the fans. The film follows different basketball supporters simultaneously - locally well known actors in a bar, parents of the players in the arena, random people near the big screens in the main square, veteran basketball experts at their homes, injured players following the games from their rehabilitation centre and many others. EuroBasket 2015 was a unique situation for three post-soviet neighboring countries - the Baltic states, as they were drawn into the same group in the preliminary round and everyone could witness the unique unity between these friendly countries.
- DirectorRolands KalninsStarsVija ArtmaneVija Artmane in a zenith of her fame and a woman with worked hands. An actress without makeup and without acting.
- DirectorGints GrubeJaak KilmiStarsNatalija KnipseIeva LesinskaImants LesinskisAs a young Soviet student in 1978, Ieva could not have predicted that a holiday visit to her father, Imants Lesinskis, then working in the Soviet mission at the United Nations in New York City, would irreversibly split her life in two. Entangled in a dark spy game, Ieva is forced to leave her former life behind, never to see her mother or her homeland of Latvia again. Pulling back the curtain on the shady behind-the-scenes world of the Cold War, this film tells a daughter's dramatic story of her double-agent father, exploring their relationship against the backdrop of events which have their roots over four decades ago. In order to find herself and understand the game she was part of, Ieva sets out on a journey to the past, confronting family secrets, lies and betrayal.
- DirectorKaspars RogaDirector Kaspars Roga travels to Sierra Leone to find out what really happened ten years ago, when his friend Mr. Dice run away after his bank went bankrupt, losing all the investors' money, including director's.
- DirectorIlze Burkovska JacobsenA personal, animated documentary about the director's life growing up in Latvia during the Soviet era 1970-1990, where Sovjet used WW2 as an ideological weapon to suppress and scare the population.
- DirectorLiene LindeArmands ZacsThe film follows four Latvian women during different stages of pregnancy. 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.
- DirectorMatiss KazaStarsEgons DombrovskisAndris KeissJanis SkutelisThree actors return to the legendary times of the Riga Film Studio and re-stage classic Soviet Latvian films.
- DirectorMara PelecisWhen Juris, a New Jersey native born to Latvian WW2 refugees, lifts the tarp that's been covering his old car for the last 25 years, he finds his '71 Valiant "Slant Six" invaded by earthworms and stray cats. Still decorated with a caricature of Gorbachev as well as "Nyet Nyet Soviet" and other anti-Soviet slogans, the Valiant chauffeured Latvian freedom activists to Soviet embassies from DC to Ottawa through the final years of the Cold War in the 1980s. Driving day to day between New York and New Jersey, the car's decor provided some much needed PR for a country few could find on a map. Protests led by Latvians living in exile kept the plight of the Soviet occupied Baltic States on the radar of the press, and in turn, the foreign policymakers of the US. "Valiant!" reveals the strategic thinking that went into creating an effective and newsworthy protest, as well as the resoluteness of organizers, born and raised in the United States, to make use of unorthodox methods as they fought for their cause. The protest leaders, almost all having been arrested at some point, later emerged as policy makers both in Latvia and the United States. Meanwhile, Juris enlists his friend to help resurrect his rusted Valiant and bring it back to where it all started - Latvia.