Sandra Alksne

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.

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.

The late 1950s. 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.

Three hapless “rescuers” respond to surreal or everyday problems.

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.

The parents have gone away, so the two sisters - Marta and Linda - need someone to take care of them. Their dictatorial spinster aunt Una, who desperately wants to get married, arrives to take on this job. Marta really wants a puppy, but her plan is ruined, as her aunt has a strong dislike for dogs. So, the relationship between the girls and Una becomes really tense. Until the perfect plan of the sisters emerges - to get rid of the aunt by helping her to get married.

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.

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.

"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.

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 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?

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

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.

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.

A sprint on premiere day. “Look! This is all yours. It’s all yours. Just run. Hold out your hand, Miru. Take it! Run faster!” a voice in her head whispers to start the day. The assistant director’s day is destined to unfold in a series of unfortunate and unlucky episodes: buying metal hair curlers, taking her three-year-old daughter to her grandmother’s, taking an actress who is having panic attacks to an interview. And then Kaspics, one of the main actors in the performance, disappears. Miru has nothing left — a day to live, a premiere to save.

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?

Today they've become almost mythical, but in 1991 the Barricades were a reality of a national revival. The will of the three Baltic countries - Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, showed that they were sovereign nation asking to accept their rights. What was this phenomenon? Was it a romantic ardency, destiny, conjunction, or God’s gift? Politicians, journalists and guardians of the Barricades discuss this topic in the film.

This time, the Emergency Brigade's rescue operation takes place in a local hospital, where one of the brigade's dashing boys, Bembelāts, is unexpectedly admitted. His diagnosis is seemingly simple - a cold, or more precisely, a severe runny nose - but he has to experience first-hand the latest medical advances. This continues until... he is rescued from the over-care of the medical profession by his colleagues to discover the old truth: treat or no treat, a runny nose will eventually go away anyway...

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.