Magic Flute

Magic Flute 2001

1

“As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relationships with this best and truest friend of mankind that death's image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling” - thus said Mozart about death. Mozart died in 1791 and was buried in a mass grave, as standard at the time in Vienna for a person of his social and financial situation. In 2000, 452 of Riga’s deceased — people without relatives, the homeless and the unidentified — were buried at the Jaunciems cemetery. But this film is not about death: it's about Mozart, The Magic Flute, Riga, and love. A short commissioned for the Latvian exhibition at Venice Biennale.

2001

Midsummer Madness

Midsummer Madness 2007

5.60

St. John’s Night is a traditional midsummer Latvian celebration where family and friends get together to build bonfires, drink and have a good time. According to a legend, on this night lovers and those who wish to fall in love can search the woods for the "magic fern".

2007

Investigation of Related Events

Investigation of Related Events 1993

1

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.

1993

Reply with Photo

Reply with Photo 1999

4.00

The shy scientist Lars decides to publish a small ad in order to find a girlfriend. From the 218 replies, he selects Brigita, an attractive Latvian woman and invites her to Stockholm. But what actually happens after Brigita's arrival is far more complicated than Lars could ever have imagined.

1999

The Ferry

The Ferry 1994

6.10

The ferry crosses the river, transporting people from one shore to the other, from one country to another. It runs year round, never stopping. The footage was filmed on the Latvian-Belarussian border in the early 1990s - a time when the Soviet Union began to crumble and Latvia regained its independence.

1994

Threesome Dance

Threesome Dance 2011

1

Four Latvian legionnaires are sentenced to death for deserting the German army. A Latvian girl heads to the German headquarters to try to free her beloved. In the few hours remaining before the execution a love triangle plays out between the girl, a German officer and the prisoner.

2011

Hide-and-seek

Hide-and-seek 2001

1

A young woman, Regina, has been killed in her apartment. Investigator Anderson holds Regina’s husband as a suspect for a murder because he is unable to remember his location at the time of the fateful event. Gradually, Anderson is convinced that Oto has not only killed his wife, but he also tries to hide his true identity – notorious criminal Schmit.

2001

Kas dzīvo komunalkā

Kas dzīvo komunalkā 1993

1

A tragicomic story about the passions and commotions behind the closed doors of communal flats in Riga.

1993

Leaving by the way

Leaving by the way 2001

1

A tale about a nine-year old boy's relationship with the world around him, shot in one of Latvia's poorest and most beautiful regions - Latgale

2001

Flashback

Flashback 2003

5.00

An autobiographical work from Herz Frank. Images guide us through the countries in which he worked, interspersed with fragments from his earlier films: births, autopsies, circumcisions, prisoners awaiting execution and other shocking themes.

2003

A Handful of Bullets

A Handful of Bullets 2002

1

A teenage boy and his uncle compete for the love of a prostitute.

2002

Wedding

Wedding 2000

1

Wedding rituals and a love triangle.

2000

You're Sexy When You're Sad

You're Sexy When You're Sad 2005

2.00

The characters of the movie are closely twisted. Each of the heroes is a slave to their own passions. Only through strong will and some happy event they will be able to free themselves from their addictions.

2005

While You’re Playing

While You’re Playing 2018

1

A portrait of the witty, artistic, and at times sarcastic Latvian composer Mārtiņš Brauns.

2018

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet 2004

1

An emotional and stylistically consistent documentary musical depicting the staging of Bernstein’s West Side Story with deaf youths. The dramatic material is intertwined with life and the emotional scenes of the musical; it creates a distinctive choreography, which is a statement of the deaf people’s craving to love this world and to be open. Reciting to music, which is the way of singing of the deaf, is the strongest and most unexpected witness of the realities of their world.

2004

Egg Lady

Egg Lady 2000

7.00

In a Latvian bakery, Aina breaks 40000 eggs per day by hand, and she has done this monotone job for almost 20 years.

2000

The Dark Deer

The Dark Deer 2007

1

17-year-old Ria is a sensitive and mysterious young woman. Ria's mother has suffered in a car accident and has stopped speaking since her daughter's birth. The family grows deer for sale, yet, the business is not successful. To earn some money, her father decides to organize a hunt.

2007

Freimis. Mārtiņš Freimanis

Freimis. Mārtiņš Freimanis 2014

1

A documentary about the Latvian pop singer Mārtiņš Freimanis who died at the early age of 33. The director of this film, Arvīds Krievs, has directed two films starring Freimanis as an actor, and had an intimate connection with him as they were neighbours and Freimanis trusted him more than the journalists or reporters who interviewed him. Arvīds Krievs had planned to make a film about the singer for a few years, so he filmed the singer's life extensively.

2014

Father, Family and the Threshing Machine

Father, Family and the Threshing Machine 2006

1

Actress Indra Burkovska tells the story of her father Aleksandrs and his large family, and life on the farm through the 20th century when the farmer was both a master and a slave to his land. Aleksandrs presents a gift to the Ethnographic Open Air Museum that was his life’s dream – a threshing machine Imanta.

2006