Subjektiv Filma

Veteran actors from the 3 Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - gather at a castle in Latvia to receive awards for their roles as Nazi villains in propagandist Soviet war films. They reminisce about the films that made them famous throughout the USSR, but also stigmatized the Baltic countries as Nazi sympathizers in the eyes of many Russians - a misconception that is nowadays exploited by the Russian media, desperate to label the Baltic countries as a fascist haven.

A film about the alarming events of the autumn of 1919, when the fate of modern-day, post WWI Europe was decided in Riga. Three world views clashed on the banks of the Daugava River – a national state for Latvians as proclaimed a year earlier, the Bolshevik revolutionary idea, and the resurrection of a monarchy. The reactionary monarchy interests were represented by German General Graf Rudiger von der Goltz, and Russian Colonel Pavel Bermont.

This is a story about four men looking for missing soldiers. What is dragging 30 year old great friends to long forgotten war fields? To give an answer to this question would be to find the meaning of life. With sincere emotional touch the film is following the way of an unknown soldier back to his family and motherland after more than half a century. The events of the film take place at the same time as the second war in Iraq. The film is based on a novel „Diggers” by Viktors Duks, nominated for the EPPI Award in 2003.

The film, dedicated to the 25th Anniversary of the Popular Front of Latvia, shows the most important turning points in the history of the Latvian National Awakening and Singing Revolution, as well as the rebirth of Latvian national symbols and values. In The Path to Baltic Freedom the authors focus on lesser known pages of history – the influence of perestroika on the early national movements of the 1980s, the role and participation of the Secret Service and the Communist Party in the newly-forming mass movements and their wish to guide or at least control them. The history of the Popular Front is shown not only until their victory in the first free elections in the history of the USSR that resulted in the restoration of independence for the Baltic states; the film also includes the decline of the organization after it had reached the most crucial of its goals.

There is an old saying attributed to Alexander the Great: he who will rule Afghanistan will rule the world. The film portrays “the roof of the Earth” and tracks the close links between this far-off country and Latvia.

This is the story of the USSR all-star basketball team – European, Olympic and world champions. What does it mean to be at the zenith of fame, at the high-point of their athletic careers, while representing the interests of a totalitarian state? And from today’s point of view, was there a sacrificing of conscience in the name of athletic glory?

Through expressive poetic cinematography this film offers a “poem” on the hundreds of worker-bees behind the annual celebrations of Latvian proclamation on November 18.