Russian Federation, December 31, 1999. After President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of the country. From that day and for a year, Vitaly Mansky's camera documented Putin's rise to power. The story of a privileged witness. The harsh explanation of the reason why politics is the art of possibility of achieving the best with the support of many, but also of giving the worst in return.
Instead of Einars Pelšs' eighth poetry book, he publishes his collected works, but the buyer of the book receives an ordinary brick. He translates the authors of the Russian Golden Age and publishes them under his own name, challenging the boundaries of literature. Is a poet who makes fun of art unique or exactly what we expect from contemporary authors? Einarrative is an extraordinary story that portrays the narrative of the life of Einārs Pelšs. In the film, this narrative is an experience of contrasting changes both in its visual style and in Einars’ poetic works and personality, allowing him to get involved in the depiction of the narrative himself, making the film as Einārs Pelšs' audiovisual collected works.
For more than a decade, wildfires of unprecedented force have been devouring our lives, homes and forests at a steady pace. Each year, 350 million hectares of forest go up in smoke, the equivalent of six times the size of France. In the US, the fire season now lasts up to two months longer than a generation ago, and the surface burnt annually has multiplied by three. This film sets out on a gripping journey of investigation from Europe to the US, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia to follow the work of a global team of dedicated firefighters, scientists and fire experts as they investigate why our forests are going up in flames, and act on an unexpected discovery: if we want to save our forests, homes, health and our climate, we need to radically change our attitude towards fire and the way we fight wildfires.
A family drama based on the short story "The Edge of the Abyss" by Raimonds Trasuns.
In a house soon to be demolished lives a little girl. When her mother dies, she is forced to look for shelter at the side of a man, the only one still left in the house. He is a strange, somber man with his only companions being two endlessly trustworthy dogs - Monk and Prince.
More than twenty years after Vladimir Putin came to supreme power in Russia on May 7, 2000, Russian society is deeply divided. A young, modern generation opposes the growing repression by the regime, which still retains the support of many members of previous generations. Who are these ordinary citizens who dream of living in a different Russia? What price will they have to pay to achieve the freedom and justice they so desire?
Project: Moving sees a young professional explore and debate the trend of young people leaving Rīga for somewhere more suitable for living, particularly the town of Cēsis in the scenic Vidzeme region. "We are simply showing that right now Cēsis has become the hipster capital, and it's not bad at all. It's like a different kind of gentrification, and it affects not just a single quarter, but the entire town."
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?
Guttenmorgen leaves the government office to see how people live in the countryside, and on the way he gets stuck in Vienciem.
A TV documentary about Latvian actor Uldis Pūcītis, featuring fragments from many of his films ("Swap Treader", "Four White Shirts" and others), as well as stories by people who knew him - actors and directors, former lovers and classmates.
The film tells about an active senior, Mārtiņš Ziebergs (65), who is spending his old days and retirement looking for lost people; there are hundreds of them in Latvia. Following his activities, the film discloses both the everyday routine of the senior – life of “a detective” and process of investigation – as well as the outcome of it – unexpected reunions of the ones who have been searching for each other for years and also unmade reunions or cases never solved.
Dagnis suffered in a serious accident that took place almost 30 years ago. He's had to learn to live with his disability and also his insomnia and loneliness, as he feels people are afraid of him. Now Dagnis has other worries: he's got a video camera in his hands for the first time of his life, and he has to make a film. He walks around the village of Vaidava, films and comments on everything he sees and hears. We have the opportunity to look at the life of a small Latvian village through Dagnis’s eyes. What does Dagnis think about the environment around him, the society and its ability to accept others?
This film looks at the Brukna commune which helps addicts recover with hard work and lots of prayer. They spend their days restoring a church and offer a look at their past lives, which they’ve escaped for a moment.
On June 14, 1941, more than 15,000 Latvian inhabitants, including approximately 4,000 children of Latvian, Jewish, Polish and Russian ethnicity were deported to Siberia. During this period of deportation by the Soviet invaders, the men were separated from their families and sent to the Gulag. Some were sentenced to the highest punishment, death, and the rest were kept in labor camps. The women and children were sent to the remote Krasnoyarsk and Tomsk districts. The first two years were the most difficult and many perished from the harsh conditions. Today some 400 of those deported children still live in Latvia and Siberia. This documentary describes the fate of these children.
In this film a young man and his curmudgeonly grandfather are going 1,800 km to northern Russia in an old Zhiguli car, hoping to find the grave of their great-grandfather, who was deported. The grandfather Andris is sceptic over the lofty quest, initiated by his grand-son, as it’s not known what awaits them at their destination. Andris thinks they won’t find anything and will come back to Latvia without ever learning what happened to his father. However ever-optimistic Kārlis wants to use the journey not only to find answers about the past but also become closer to his grandfather who raised him. They both lost their parents as children.
Katrīna is a typical city dweller who has lived in Mangaļsala all her life, but she has a less than typical passion. On one hand, Katrīna is a rational, young and well-educated professional, but on the other – an irresponsible child of nature, who keeps a dog, two cats and two horses in her limited urban space.
When you first meet Kaspars Putriņš, you get the impression that this person lives outside of time. Friends call him a Renaissance man. Kaspars builds medieval musical instruments which are very rare in Europe, works as a sound director, forms part of the alternative music group “Amoral Psychosis”, and studies developments in nature and space. Not only Kaspars’s professional activity, but also his very way of life raises the question – does the age create a man, or does a man create his age?
'Žagari' traces the lives of Andrejs and Juris Žagars, brothers from the city of Cēsis, who both became distinguished in the arts as actors and administrators of art institutions, while both also found success as entrepreneurs. The original plan of the filmmakers was to show two strong personalities with their characteristic relationship and rivalries. However, fate intervened during the filming process, transforming the result into a powerful and touching portrait of brotherly love and the importance of family ties.
About the love and recognition of the people. In the year of Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga's 80th birthday, LTV film - "Always the President".
