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.
A nightmarish evening unfolds for David, a former New York Times journalist, when he and his strange new neighbor Robert, accidentally hit a girl on her bike. Buzzed and disoriented, David lets Robert convince him to flee the scene and leave the girl for dead, in order to protect his career. Robert shows no remorse, and in the name of friendship he does unspeakable things to protect the secret. Now that the police are full-on hunting for the hit-and-run killer, things begin to spiral out of control when David’s local newspaper sends him to cover the story where he meets the deceased girl’s sister Vanessa. Despite the circumstances, and her deep desire to find her sister’s killer, the two immediately have a romantic connection, which surprises and haunts David, while pushing Robert to take brutal steps to keep his new friend to himself.
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.
Film takes us deep inside the world of Latvian teenagers in 90s: combining the intimate diary of a teenager Jānis trying to find himself by joining a subculture, as well as a skillful, detailed and almost documentary-like depiction of the beginnings of the second independence of Latvia. “Jelgava ’94” is a portrait of a generation in the 1990s who are searching for their own identity and are fans of alternative culture. This is a touching story about us as youngsters, when everybody is against the whole world and tries not to become “one of them”. But can one keep the promise? The story is based on the best seller by Jānis Joņevs set in the 1994 in the Latvian city of Jelgava.
A Greek couple, Anna (Katia Goulioni) and Petros (Andreas Konstantinou), have recently moved to a small industrial town in Siberia. It’s a long process to adapt, especially for Anna, since Petros is quite occupied with his job. That will cause a conflict between them and inevitably the couple is distanced. Everything is escalated as for the past period there is no sexual intercourse between them. This slow-paced decay is intensified when an unexpected event occurs, changing everything between them. Balancing between trust and disbelief the haunting suspense evolves.
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 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.
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.
Pigtail loves the winter holidays, but this year, shortly before Christmas, Brother comes into the world, turning everything upside down. Grandmother arrives from the countryside, because Pigtail’s parents no longer have time to take her skating, but Pigtail and her best friend, Mr. Sleeplessness, don’t like the new order. They come up with a plan – to send Brother and Grandmother to the Moon, in a bid to reclaim parental attention.
The 14th of June 1941, Soviet-occupied Latvia: Without warning, the authorities break into the house of Melanie and her husband Aleksandr and force them to leave everything behind. Together with more than 15 000 Latvians, Melanie and her son get deported to Siberia. In her fight against cold, famine and cruelty, she only gains new strength through the letters she writes to Aleksandr, full of hope for a free Latvia and a better tomorrow.
Based on a Soviet propaganda story about Young Pioneer (the Soviet equivalent of a Boy Scout) Morozov, who denounced his father to Stalin’s secret police and was in turn killed by his family. His life exemplified the duty of all good Soviet citizens to become informers, at any expense. In our film, 75 years later, we call him little Janis. He is a Pioneer who lives on the Soviet collective farm “Dawn”. His father is an enemy of the farm (and the Soviet system) and plots against it. Little Janis betrays his father; his father takes revenge upon his son. Who then in this old Soviet tale is good and who is bad? This film reveals that a distorted brain is always dangerous. Even today.
After his wife kicks him out of the house, an elderly, anti-social and quite conservative man Arvīds decides to reconnect with his grandson by staying with the boy and his mother. Not keen on their lifestyle, the old man tries hard to accept all the eccentricities of the young and liberal. Fortunately for him, a warm-hearted friend of Arvīds’ ex-daughter-in-law is always around to help and he seems to be a natural when it comes to children and other stubborn people. When Arvīds finds out that the young man is gay, he decides he has had enough. Often, life is not that much about finding your place, as about learning how to share that place with others. This short film is a light and playful experience, looking into the definition of “normal” that varies so strongly from generation to generation.
This creative documentary tells the story of women in art – what she has to sacrifice in her personal life and what choices have to be made in order to gain success in her career. The film explores life of artist, by following theatre director’s Mara Kimele's fighting relationships with her despotic grandmother Anna Lacis (widely known as Asya, whose life is closely tied to the names of Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brech), cynical son Peteris (who is played by an actor) and work while she stages F. Dostoevsky's “Crime and Punishment”. Every character of film is an act. But does that make them any less real? And what is real in the world of art? Apart from its human character's, the film also has an animated one – the horse, who came into life through the first letter Mara wrote to her grand mother and has been following her ever since.
After recovering from an overseas mission, Krists Lapins moves into a quiet neighbourhood in Riga. His hopes for a new, peaceful life are disrupted when an unexpected visitor arrives one night. Krists soon finds himself in a swirl of events involving a mysterious blonde, a wannabe private detective, a bankrupt millionaire, and a rigorous cop. In this witty portrayal of modern Latvian society the absurd meets the comic and nothing is what it seems.
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.
The shy scientist Lars decides to publish a small ad in order to find a girlfriend. From the 218 replies, he selects Brigita, an attractive Latvian woman and invites her to Stockholm. But what actually happens after Brigita's arrival is far more complicated than Lars could ever have imagined.