Staņislavs Tokalovs

In the late 1970s – at a time when the fiercest propaganda against Western culture was being waged throughout the USSR – an ardent rock and roll fan sets up a successful and illegal underground jeans factory in a Latvian psychiatric hospital.

Agate – the older and well-off partner of Matiss and the mother of ten-year-old Paula dies unexpectedly. It becomes a devastating blow for Paula and a grand possibility for Matiss, a charming novice bailiff assistant and a cheating boyfriend, to “upgrade” his social status with Agates splendid house. Matiss and Paula are stuck together in order to find the only relative left – the missing brother of Agate. This journey leaves irreversible footprints on both of them.

Elsa falls in love with a quadriplegic genius, her patient Nicola, whose mansion hides a secret – Nicola is obsessed with the creation of an artificial intellect. His creation, named Anna, stops at nothing to keep her master just for herself.

Mikhail Tal. From a Far is a documentary exploring the unpredictable and tragic life of the genius world chess champion Mikhail Tal, Riga's native son. Mikhail Tal becomes the youngest world chess champion at 23. The same year, he was diagnosed with incurable kidney disease and given only one year to live. Through sheer will and reckless abandon he managed to live another 40 years, filling them with a string of remarkable chess successes, unexplainable failures, amorous conquests and a life-threatening game of cat and mouse with the KGB.

A youngster Andis, 21 offers a friend of his grandmother Mara, 80, who is dying, to fulfil her every wish in exchange for her apartment after her death. This agreement lets both of them rethink their attitude for what they actually want.

Through following the twists and turns of three generations of women in the Russian-speaking Latvian film director’s family, the film attempts to look at the reality of the half-million community of Russians in the Baltic countries in 2020. Through the story of a grandmother – a veteran of the Second World War who came to Latvia in 1955 in search of a better life, a mother – a lecturer in a closing down Transport and Telecommunication Institute , and an eighteen-year-old daughter – an artist, a student of the prestigious Latvian Art School. The film tries to understand whether this family managed to find its place in the new society after 30 years of Latvian Independence.

During the reconstruction of the Valmiera Theatre building (2021-2024), artistic activities were never interrupted - the preparation of new productions and performances in the Round Hall continued. The promised one winter of patience turned into three. Rehearsals and performances took place in various locations in Valmiera, but the theatre building, despite the lack of water and heat, was never abandoned - with construction crews, through the dust and cold, actors and other theatre staff went to the rehearsal hall, the Round Hall, the carpentry workshop, and the administration to work as if nothing were unusual or difficult.