Sandra Alksne

A film about the outstanding Latvian film director Juris Podnieks, who during his lifetime gained the fame of a fighter for justice and an "eye-opener". Podnieks has created testimonies about the most important events of the twentieth century in the post-Soviet territory. He always saw a bigger picture, it was not just Latvia what interested him. His ability to cover such a wide spectrum of themes - wars, lost freedom of his own country, the Soviet regime and its collapse, young people, artists. But most importantly, he was always focusing on the human soul. Juris creates an emotional bond between the author and his characters, the characters and the viewer - he was talking to each individual. Perhaps this is why his films made such an effect on the viewer. Juris Podnieks has clearly been able to influence millions of viewers with his films. Juris himself died in the summer of 1992 in a diving accident. Did he manage to fulfill his mission in this life?

They are bonded by their pain, longing, and their current residence – a semi-open prison for women. While staging Anton Chekhov’s play, Three Sisters, together with professional actors, imprisoned women reveal their harrowing life-stories, dreams and the longing for a decent life outside the prison walls.

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?

An intimate portrait of a young couple, Zoryana and Edgars, and their hardships as young, 17-year-old parents, living in the countryside in a remote part of Latvia. The limited job opportunities available in their rural area have left the family mired in poverty. Zoryana becomes a hostage between her two closest people, her mother and Edgars – she must choose between her mother’s advocacy of countryside as the best place for raising a family and life in the city, which would offer more creature comforts and more opportunities to earn a living. Zoryana Horobraya sweeps us along on Zoryana’s journey, as she tries to escape the protective bubble of her mother and define her own family’s happiness and existence.

A family film about an adventure of kids discovering and safeguarding the mystery of an old garden.

Documentary charting research at an ancient holy site. Miracle Hunters: Zilaiskalns, is about Zilaiskalns (Blue Hill), an allegedly sacred place and its own local spirit man Anatolijs. The place is associated with the Marta of the Blue Hill, a legendary woman with extraordinary abilities.

Latvian Imants Tillers is one of the most important Australian artists of his generation, creator of installations, sculptures, paintings and graphic arts. His work is a kind of a world book – events connect and cultural references intertwine in a mutually interactive system, nurturing his own search for identity.

A film about Alexei Avechkin – a talented, creative dancer who opened up a new page in Latvian ballet history but was taken from life unforgivably early. A story about searching, striving and inspiration.

An actress faces a difficult choice when her teenage daughter gets unwell right before the opening night of a show.

Vyacheslavs Kashcheyevs is a man who feels the world with each single one of his atoms and breaks the stereotype about physics as a dry and impersonal field of science. In parallel to splitting electrons in the laboratory, he seeks a connection to the Almighty, and is a dreamer, an exceptional scientist, family man and educator, socially active and civically minded. What allows him, unlike most of us, to be so harmonious and seemingly omniscient? Together with quantum physicist, theological authority and Latvian patriot Vyacheslav Kashcheyev, the film searches for the code to modern-day life.

A small town teenage girl Meldra, aspiring to be a writer, heads to Riga in hope to find Rihards, a famous poet, with whom she has fallen in love. She gets carried away by the turbulent life of the capital. While breaking all of her suburban standards, she loses many of her illusions and becomes courageous enough to make her own decisions.

Imagine centuries ago several witches huddled around a steaming cauldron, gleefully consigning offensive items to the foul-smelling brew. Maggots, worms, snails – who knows what else? Perhaps unbelievable, but it did help. This is a story about people who practice their own way of feeling fit and happy. A hunter is convinced that beaver glands offer a unique remedy against various ailments. Herbal teas, picked at the right time, can perform miracles! Many shrink away from bees, but bees can bring relief. All good and simple things, forgotten in the rush of the 21st century.

A father who has just been released from prison strives to reconnect with his son. Good intentions are hindered by unexpected obstacles. An unforgettable day spent by the two together might turn into the very last day for one of them.

A film examining the game of doubles of democracy and capitalism since the restoration of independence in Latvia. Freedom from the USSR, pilfering the state, victory in Eurovision, joining the EU and NATO, the greatest crisis in the world – a quarter century of contrast and challenges.

Vija Celmiņš – Latvian-American painter and graphic artist, who has gained international recognition thanks to her special signature – reproductions of endless expanses (the sea, sky, desert). Her works have been included in the most significant modern art collections and displayed in retrospectives the world over. For the filmmakers, visiting Vija Celmiņš in New York was a rare opportunity to come in close proximity to this artist’s creative process and unique personality.

A documentary about the band of Latvian exhile musicians, "Čikāgas piecīši".

The story of young lives in the young offenders unit in Cēsis, Latvia. A place governed by its own codes and order, where unwritten rules are more powerful than the written word. In the making of the film, the production team witnessed a gamut of attitudes and emotions. Much can be understood from the youths’ gestures, facial expressions and from their actions. Secretive and uncommunicative, they are victims, yet perpetrators of crime. But, also still children.

In 1986, Juris Podnieks made his film "Is it easy to be young?". The film became extremely popular and very soon was shown in 85 countries, which was a tremendous success for a Latvian film. It was even regarded as "the first bird of Perestroika". In 1998 the follow up film was made. It was extremely interesting to find out how the new economic system after the fall of the Soviet regime in Latvia had changed the lives of the persons filmed 10 years ago. "Is it easy to be...? After 10 years" also got an international recognition. The question 20 years later was- does anything change in this world or perhaps there are things that never change?! What has become of these brave youngsters who had once helped to destroy the Soviet system and who are now the generation of forty?

Regularly hanging upside-down improves one’s sex life, while loss of consciousness should be used for self-development. These are views expressed by those who Vilhelms meet one evening on the way to work as night-watchman. But the reserved, worry-ridden young man goes on a radically different path to change his life.

Donats is a modern-day Don Juan juggling the various women in his life seemingly without any consequences, until he falls in love with Agnese. Her husband, Ralfs, turns out to be a formidable opponent.

Nominated as one of the best Latvian short films in 2007

The existence of two parallel communities – one Latvian, the other Russian, is the reality of present day Latvia. After the establishment of an independent Latvian Republic in 1991, the Russian speaking community began to see themselves as a threatened minority and started to depict themselves as oppressed. Where does the truth lie? Are there victims? Or is it simply that the idea of integration, for both sides, does not work properly?

The Hijacker lands the plane at the Rīga Airport. 7 year-old Tom, travelling on his own, voluntarily becomes a hostage. Along with the traditional demands, the Hijacker adds the demands of the little hostage – beginning with some local chocolate and a self-instruction tape for learning the native language, and ending with organizing a Song Festival and a special biathletes’ performance – all ideas originating from a CD on Latvia.

Jānis was an actor – respected and in demand. Dina came to the Liepāja Theatre to become an actress. In the summer of 1992, Jānis fell off the roof of his house, broke his back and was partially paralysed. The doctors promised things would get better but they didn’t. They now live in a harsh reality which seems unbearable.

A documentary about Latvian partisans ("forest brothers") who were fighting against the Soviet occupation long after the end of WWII.

The two sisters' parents have gone abroad to earn the living, so the girls Marta and Linda needs someone to take care of them. For that they have their dictatorial spinster aunt Una, who desperately wants to get married, and has a sympathy for the jeweler Ivo. Meanwhile, Marta is working hard to get a promised puppy, but her plans are ruined, as her aunt feels a strong despise for dogs. So, the relations between the girls and their aunt becomes really tense. Until the perfect plan of the sisters - to help the aunt to get married, to get rid of her.

A documentary about Latvians in the United States.

An absurdist farce centering around a school in post-Soviet Latvia. After a rather disgusting prank (someone defecates in the school attic), the tyrannical headmistress deems that no one can leave until the culprit is caught. When the photographer's pet python escapes, havok breaks loose.

A documentary about the creative process of Latvian artist Ilmārs Blumbergs, also featuring poet Imants Tilbergs who is trying to write one and the same book all his life.

"In the world of the fly," says biologist Uexkull, "we find only fly things. In the world of the sea urchin we find only sea urchin things." This is the Colonel’s story and here you will find only Colonel things.

At the end of World War II, many Latvians, Lithuanians, and Estonians fled the Soviet rule. They stayed abroad for many years. Now, after the regaining of independence of the three Baltic states, they are coming back. Their stories vary.

A historical drama about an attempt to steal the entire Latvian national wealth deposited abroad by Wilhelms Munters, the Latvian Foreign Minister in the forties.

Every night, Soviet tractors comb the coast of Latvia looking for signs of anyone who could have infiltrated the Soviet border from the sea. One morning, three Soviet patrolmen discover a woman’s shoe in the sand and footsteps leading to the quaint little village of Liepaja.

The strange creatures Munk and Lemmy encounter very human problems and attempts at solving them. Here, they try to help their friend the rabbit, who is unable to reach the fruit he desires. A film from the Munk and Lemmy series.

The movie shows a young man's life dramatically changed after his friend is murdered. It is ironic - if to look with today's eyes - and nostalgia evoking portrait of marginal society and environment in the early 1990s with allusions to the western cinema - film noir related themes, surrealistic features, avantgard cinema stylization and formal aesthetics.

Erik lives by night. He works in a nightclub and occasionally dresses up as a woman to rob rich clients. One day Erik's father arrives uninvited. It's a surprise visit that brings out memories of complicated childhood.

A film about a unique personality with an unbreakable spirit – Gunārs Astra. He can be considered as Latvian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn or Václav Havel. Twenty years he spent in Soviet prisons because of anti-government thinking. In a 1983 trial by the Latvian SSR, Astra said, “I believe this time will fade like an evil nightmare.” The fate of Gunārs Astra himself was tragic. Like Alexei Navalny in Russia, Astra was poisoned with tea on a train to Saint Petersburg. A week later, Gunārs Astra died. Astra’s death became a symbol of light on the long road to the restoration of Latvia’s independence.