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FILMS FROM THE BALTICS
These are films to be perceived as a part of the world cinema of today, beyond language and country of origin, yet so aware and proud of it. Naturally – the festival grows in sync with the film culture and industry here in the Baltics, and every year presents new challenges and reveals unexpected strengths. Baltic film in an international context is still a challenging feat but just look at the wonders a meeting like this brings to the table ever more often!
Trains and railroad tracks are the unifying elements in this found footage film made out of fragments from feature films produced in Latvia from 1958 to 1989. It’s a cinematic journey into the world of dreams, filled with memories, desires, and the incessant quest for the ever-elusive happiness. The trains have played an important role in the history of cinema. A lot of interesting phenomena are linked with trains – locomotion, changes, an opportunity to think, dynamics, force, sense of something important… It helps to cross the usual boundaries.
The film is based on the life story of Melānija Vanaga, a woman who managed to survive her deportation to Siberia. It is a truthful account of the magnitude of the human spirit and the painful destinies, which were a part of the greatest tragedy facing the nation. It is the story of Latvian women who had to suffer and survive physically and emotionally in order for Latvia to live. To maintain hope, to preserve a person who is stronger than famine, cold, cruelty and even death and is capable of taking on responsibility for another person, to help others – such is the confirmation of Melānija Vanaga, her memories and also this film to the light in the world.
The fast-paced action comedy takes us back to the 1980s. Three Estonian guys flee Soviet Union, because they want to have as awesome life in the free world as they’ve seen in TV series Miami Vice, Knight Rider and Santa Barbara. Swedes welcome friends as real heroes, who broke through the Iron Curtain. But as the media circus blows over, our dissidents discover that they’ve become nothing more than tedious immigrants. To put food on the table, they have to do something as lame as… work! But the boys are no quitters, so they come up with new crazy plans that should guarantee success in the Western world. That’s when things go totally insane!
Lithuanian provincial town is facing the economic crisis in 2008. Vytas gets fired from the factory. Pushed by his wife, he immediately starts looking for a new job, but not really successfully. After having his new haircut done, Vytas starts looking for a love affair with the hairdresser Marija, but not really successfully, either. Finally, Vytas gets involved into a third search – together with his best friend Petras he starts looking for a guy who posted video on youtube, claiming he saw Jesus Christ in their town. This is the only time Vytas succeeds…
Waterfall and I, and – no, the other way around! This film is, of course, about nature – human nature. Or – what a human can do with the widest waterfall in Europe. “I feel as if I had exclusive rights to this place, because I grew up ‘framing’ it—I was too small to see the waterfall over the railings of Kuldīga Bridge and so I spent lots of time with my head stuck through the lower gaps in the railings. I have been convinced since then that it is not enough for anyone just to look at the waterfall. For instance, I wished to shoot a film there and others also have all kinds of waterfall-related wishes. My film is about wish fulfilment,” says the director Laila Pakalniņa.
A psychological drama with elements of science fiction. Nurse Elza falls in love with her patient – a young, rich, and brilliant scientist Nicolas. He is trapped in a coma now, but previously he was experimenting with artificial intelligence. The recovery will take a long time and it’s not easy for both characters to build a mutual trust. Things are getting really complicated as the scientist’s invention – artificial intelligence Anna – manages to wilfully interfere in the relationship of the man and woman.
A woman lives alone on the outskirts of a village in Russia. One day she receives a parcel she sent to her incarcerated husband, marked ‘return to sender’. Shocked and confused, the woman has no choice but to travel to the prison in a remote region of the country in search of an explanation. So begins the story of an absurd battle against this impenetrable fortress, the prison where the forces of social evil are constantly at work. Braving violence and humiliation, in the face of all opposition, our protagonist embarks on a blind quest for justice. This film is a metaphor for a country where people are constantly violated by each other. Hypocrisy, gigantic lies and double standards…
Rokas and Inga, a couple of young Lithuanians, volunteer to drive a cargo van of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Amid the violence and death of the conflict, they meet different war correspondents, one of whom is played by Vanessa Paradis. When plans change and they find themselves left to their own devices, they cross the vast snowy lands of the Donbass region in search of allies and shelter, drifting into the lives of those affected by the war. They approach the frontline in spite of the danger, all the while growing closer to each other as they begin to understand life during wartime.
Under the loving but firm guidance of an old fan turned director and cultural diplomat and to the surprise of a whole world, the ex-Yugoslavian cult band Laibach becomes the first foreign rock group ever to perform in the fortress state of North Korea. Confronting strict ideology and cultural differences, the band struggles to get their songs through the needle’s eye of censorship before they can be unleashed on an audience never before exposed to alternative rock’n’roll. Meanwhile, propaganda loudspeakers are being set up at the border between the two Koreas and a countdown to war is announced. The hills are alive… with the sound of music!