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.
World War II, occupied Soviet Union. István Semetka is a simple Hungarian farmer who serves as a Sub-Lieutenant in a special unit scouting for partisan groups. On their way to a remote village, his company falls under enemy fire. As the commander is killed, Semetka has to overcome his fears and take command of the unit as he is dragged into a chaos that he cannot control.
The film tells the story of an artist avoiding a confrontation with power and the artistic and personal consequences of this choice. A powerful historical drama on the true story of Maria Leiko, famous actress who late in her career has to decide between fame and love for her grandchild, between her ideals or the lies of Stalin’s totalitarian regime.
Hardly anyone would have predicted that Žanis Lipke would miraculously become a hero. He was a completely ordinary Latvian blue-collar worker. In order to be able to support his family under wartime conditions, he worked at the German military aviation warehouses and supplemented his income by smuggling at night. This film attempts to answer the question whether Žanis’ courage stems from his adventurous and daring spirit, stubbornness, or a sense of responsibility towards people in need.
A documentary detective film about the construction of a 870 kilometres long highspeed railway line that started with a dream to connect the Baltic States to rest of the Europe when in 1991 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania regained their independence from Soviet Union. Filmmaker Kārlis Lesiņš becomes a ‘citizen-investigator’ and goes on the road to find out why after 30 years and with only few years before the intended launch of the Rail Baltica railway line, the construction of this EU-funded project is significantly behind the schedule, over the budget and may never be finished at all. Kārlis follows the trail of Rail Baltica project, trying to get the answers - what has happened and what is happening? Traveling through all the involved countries, he meets officials, military personnel, investigative journalists, people whose land will be expropriated, employees implementing the project and potentially benefiting entrepreneurs, who open up to him with their versions of the story.
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.
Gutenmorgen is an eccentric family man who tends to see his life in bright colours. In order to improve his failing eyesight, Gutenmorgen decides to open a third eye. Gutenmorgen begins mediating with a self-proclaimed guru and hopes that this unconventional activity will make his family and friends appreciate him just a little bit more.
'Vadātājs' is an ancient Latvian mythological creature that leads people to Nowhere. As Latvia has been declared the most superstitious country in the EU, it is important to understand – what do we believe in? Three young filmmakers – a director, cinematographer and sound girl – question if Latvia is a lost country and if a Vadātājs has achieved enormous power by leading Latvian society into confusion. A search for a contemporary Vadātājs*, and the understanding of the origins of confusion within people in the 21st century.
Lithuania, 1948. War is over, but the country is left in ruins. 19-year-old Untė is a member of the Partisan movement resisting Soviet occupation. They do not fight on equal terms, but this desperate struggle will determine the future of the whole population. At the age of discovery of life, Untė discovers violence and treachery. The lines are blurred between the burning passion of his youth and the cause for which he is fighting. He will invest himself wholeheartedly, even if it means losing his innocence…
Deniss is a Russian-speaking young man working at a fast food chain and spending his days in a small, gloomy apartment where all the things still remind him of his dead grandmother. Once a week he takes the stage, becoming a stand-up comedian. His jokes come from his life, which might be called dull as well as bleak, and, as he puts it, his ‘uninteresting biography’.
As 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.
The only novel written by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard (Il Gattopardo, 1958), just like its screen adaptation by Luchino Visconti, is considered a masterpiece. This film tells about the life of Tomasi and his German-Baltic wife Alexandra von Wolff-Stomersee – their unusual love story. The chaos of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and World War II forced Alexandra to leave St. Petersburg and later on – the family's castle in Stāmeriena, Latvia. During the war, in 1943, she fled to her husband in Palermo, where she would live until the day she died.
Līgatne river ferry crossing takes locals, tourists, passers-by and cars from early spring to the fall over river Gauja. It's the last of what were once many such 'rope ferries' across Gauja, but it remains more than an historical oddity and plays an important part in many lives. At just 12 square meters, the wooden ferry nevertheless encompasses an intriguing and sometimes surprising selection of what constitutes 21st-century Latvia.
Self-made banker Boriss Osipovs achieves quick success immediately after the collapse of the USSR, but he flees Latvia to avoid arrest for illegal operations. Fifteen years later, his family receives a photograph from Interpol of an elderly gentleman with the same name who resides in a Malaysian mental asylum. Could it be him? Despite the reservations of her family, Osipovs’ daughter, documentary director Ieva Ozoliņa, starts an investigation to find out the truth about the man in the photograph. An emotional story about a man who loses himself in times of change...and the daughter who hopes to find him.
A film about one of Europe's best young theatre directors, Latvian-born Alvis Hermanis, and his distinctive method, marked by a renunciation of classic dramatic material.
In the minds of people, Brussels is no longer a geographical location; it is now a myth-surrounded centre, where decisions are made regarding future life in Europe. The most brilliant minds from the European countries have convened in Brussels: former state leaders, highly-placed officials, advisors, translators and interpreters, as well as family members of all these people. Together, they comprise a sort of separate planet ruled by special laws and using new methods of communication; it is a place of a high concentration of power and all sorts of creature comforts. The anxiety following the 2016 attacks on Brussels has taken everyone by surprise, and the question whether to stay on Planet Brussels now comes up increasingly often. The Brexit news gave completely different kind of concussion to the commonly established center of Europe.
A documentary revealing society's perceptions of old age.
Based on a Lithuanian writer’s novel “Breathing Into Marble” the film focuses on the challenges of a modern family. It is a romantic ballad with the plot of a thriller. Izabele and Liudas – itellectuals living in a homestead near a big city and raising the son, Gailius, who has a case of epilepsy and is smarter than most children his age. Izabele convinces her husband to adopt a six-year-old boy who is unable to put down roots in this new family and always fights for mother’s attention. Director Giedrė Beinoriūtė speaks about relationships, invisible bonds connecting our lives and responsibility for each other.
