Jānis Ābele

A problem that every film director has faced – how do you film something that does not exist? A director is making a documentary about an actor and his stalker – but the stalker never appears. As the deadline approaches, unusual steps must be taken.

Forgotten and, perhaps, unheard Latvian myths and ghost stories.

From true events to total fantasy. From comedy to horror. Latvian Song and Dance Festival Celebration in the vision of six Latvian directors.

It is year 1994. Spring. In Jelgava – a small town in Latvia. Jānis (14) – behaves well at school, shows interest in all subjects, and studies well. His mother loves him very much. There are exactly two things happening in one day, which change his life completely. One – a new girl, Kristīne (15), comes to his class and attracts everybody’s attention immediately. And second– Kurt Cobain commits suicide. Until this moment Jānis does not know anything neither about Nirvana, nor about Cobain. But very soon he finds out.

A melancholic view facing a mirror of water. It deceives the film’s protagonist, who wallows in longing and memories of his lost lover. The water here takes on the shape of a tear, a trickle through fallen leaves, the volume of a drink left undrunk in a bar, and the beauty of an oasis. Perhaps the unfortunate creature should follow the water, so that his beloved can be reborn?

An ordinary old folks’ home on the Latvian border – one of many, where our parents, grand-parents and other relatives spend their old age. Theirs is the generation whose prime years co-existed with the Soviet Union, and who were promised: work, give all you can, and we’ll take care when you’re old. The system changed and the reality is different. How to live in this reality, accept the current rules, or live in the past and have regrets. We will touch upon their world, and the dreams and hopes of Vilnis, Imants, Alberts and Elizabete.

Two twenty-somethings from Latvia meet in the south of France. Leo studies restoration, Anna has lived in Marseille for some time and works as a hairdresser. Also, she looks very much like the image of a girl that Leo has uncovered restoring an altar painting.

Spring 2021. A cinephile invites you on an intimate trip through the last surviving cinema houses in Latvia. This documentary essay, shot on super 8mm, opens the locked doors to picture houses during a Covid-19 lockdown, perhaps the most difficult time in the history of physical cinema space.

Anatols Imermanis was a Latvian crime writer and a poet during Soviet occupation. He could call himself a successful, financially stable soviet writer. But he wanted more – to be free. The free West, especially Paris, was a life-long dream for Imermanis, but he was never allowed to leave the Soviet Union. So he created his own personal Paris – a bohemian lifestyle, sexual freedom, ignoring all puritan norms of the soviet world. He died alone without fulfilling his dream about Paris. But death was not a reason to give up – his last will was to be cremated and his ashes to be dispersed in Paris red light quarters.

The young Jekabs, Linda and Rihards enjoy the spring full of romance and bohemian way of life. The apple-trees are in blossom in Riga and the war unavoidably approaches.

The director of the film looks at his father, photographer and non-conformist, from a drone’s perspective, as he digs a grave humming his childhood song.

It is a hot summer day and the Song Festival rehearsal is underway for the kokle ensemble. The exhausting rehearsal is enlivened by the arrival of percussionist Reinis. The ensemble's soloist Zane feels that this fateful encounter strikes not only the strings of the kokle, but also the strings of her heart. After the rehearsal, at the school where everyone is staying overnight, Zane realizes that her instrument is missing. It is the eve of the concert, and in the morning they must go to the final grand concert. She asks Reinis for help, as he is the last person to have seen the instrument. As the two wander through the school's dark corridors, it begins to seem that perhaps they will find more than just the lost kokle.

The heroine is a widow and a fiancé who wants to begin a new and happy life. Conflicts in her family’s past prevent it, but she does not give up – she wants to clear away the ruins and do what she can. “Enough of looking for guilt, it’s time to find a solution,” she thinks, and takes action.

A documentary essay examining the creative process of creating a book from the writer's first thought to the printing of the typescript.

Two girls on holiday find a diary in an abandoned boat and set out to investigage a mysterious light on the horizon.