KIDS
WEEKEND
GREAT CINEMA FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Latvia is a small country. And this is just the fourth year that a festival of such international significance takes place in Riga. We need new and young people to fall in love with the beautiful world of cinema! This is an honest answer as to why it is so important to have a whole weekend dedicated to films for the whole family, why it is important to provide additional captivating pastimes as well… Two fascinating days of a cinematic adventure for schoolchildren, pre-school kids and their kin.
When a photo is all you can leave in this world.
Deniss is a stand-up comedian working at a fast food chain.
After a chance meeting with a girl, a nameless boy becomes her lover and guardian angel. Together they avenge the girl’s rape, fleeing into the woods in an attempt to escape the modern world and civilization. They commit more crimes, killing encountered people at random, until the third character comes into the story, changing the dynamic of the lovers’ relationship. It’s an emotional story of passion, violence and the impossibility of running away from oneself. The previous feature film by Alexander Vartanov has been called a nightmarish Russian take on Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959). This film resembles a tragedy that took place in Russia near Pskov when the Blueberry Fields was completed already.
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!
An adult fairy tale. In mythology of mermaids, they are often portrayed as evil, wild, and predatory. Here the mermaid is a voracious but sensitive being who tries to follow the principles of the human world and loses her own identity. These mermaids do not wear seashell bras but rather chew on human hearts. A pair of mermaid sisters in an alternate 1980s Poland are drawn ashore to explore the wonders and temptations of life on land. Their tantalizing siren songs and otherworldly auras make them overnight sensations as nightclub singers. One sister falls for a human, and the siblings’ bond is tested as love and survival come into conflict…
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!
Super-objective dashboardcam videos grow into a strong image of Russian national character with its permanent awaiting for the miracle and habitual approach to real dramas. Everything can happen on Russian roads. Everything can happen on the road of life. If you like car crash compilations and Russians with foul mouths, you will love this fascinating mosaic of asphalt adventures and landscape photography, in which video footage from a variety of dashboard cameras presents the absurd and frightening nature of Russia. Alongside a series of bizarre car accidents on the country’s roads, the dashboard cameras also capture other spectacles through the windshield, such as a hysterical wedding guest, a confused man and a horse-drawn sleigh. More than once, angry motorists brandish axes, pistols or sledgehammers at the camera, and at times the camera itself seems to come to life, when it is chucked out of the car or stolen by someone breaking in. The footage of spectacular trips through a forest fire, tall snowdrifts or flooded streets is almost poetic – and what’s that up there in the sky? Is it a plane crashing, or could it be a comet? Bemused commentary from unseen drivers and passengers or the sound of the car radio provides unintentionally comical moments. Would someone please call 911?
Mop brings the coffee machine to boil and wonders what would happen if he added a bag of green powder.
Toda, 10, lives in a bakery with her dad, the best pastry chef in town. She knows everything there is to know about cakes and pastries. But one day, everything changes: her dad is called away unexpectedly to defend his country. She thinks it means becoming a bush because soldiers have to stick branches to their helmets. Now Toda must undertake an adventurous and challenging journey to the unknown neighbouring country where her mother lives. On the way she meets strange people, encounters absurd situations and finds a special new friend.
