Ieva Puķe

This four-part historical drama follows the end of Catherine the Great's reign and her affair with Russian military leader Grigory Potemkin that helped shape the future of Russian politics.

After losing his leg, ex-cop Didzis focuses on training his three beloved police dogs. His estranged wife Jana, a doctor at the local sports school, seeks romantic fulfilment with Roberts, a 17-year-old student and a promising swimmer. After a secret randez-vous, Jana hits a rabid wild boar with her car and eventually spreads the virus to Didzis’ dogs. The accident ignites dark suspicion and jealousy in Didzis. Busy with finding and punishing Jana’s secret lover, Didzis overlooks the ever-growing strangeness and aggression in his now infected dogs. Just as the love triangle becomes toxic, the dogs escape and threaten the local town. Facing both personal and professional fiasco, Didzis decides to take matter in his own hands.

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.

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.

Nils and his two best friends are invited to a 25 year reunion for their student years. Nils is given the task of holding the main speech. This comes at a bad time. He is troubled with his self consciousness, eyesight, hemorrhoids and age bothering him.

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.

Gertrude is a forty-year-old woman. She is lonely and lives in a one-room apartment. She works at a public lavatory. One night, a spider bites her. Gertrude gains superpowers: super strength and ability to weave a web, yet she does not understand how to deal with these new-found abilities. The relationship between the spider and Gertrude reminds of destructive relationship between a man and a woman.

John is arrested on his 40th birthday, just on the day when he has realized that everything he has been doing before has increased the absurdity and senselessness of this world.

Raimonds, 21, is a construction student who has taken a gap year at university. He spends his everyday life at his parents' house, playing computer games and slowly drowning in the virtual world. But this idleness is interrupted when his aunt brings his cunning and at least inwardly energetic grandfather Gunārs to the family home, who has to attend a medical check-up in the city. Raimonds' mother and aunt have to leave for a few days, so Raimonds will have to look after Gunārs and take him to the hospital.

It's 1985, and Latvia is still under the Soviet occupation. Haralds Mednis, acclaimed Latvian choral conductor, is expelled from participating at the National Song and Dance festival, and a symbolic Latvian song "Gaismas pils" ("Castle of Light") is excluded from the programme of the festival. However, the choirs and the public shout out Haralds Mednis's name and try to get him to conduct "Gaismas pils", in spite of the censors. This film is an attempt to imagine what the people working for the state apparatus tasked with oppressing any rebellious actuons might have felt at that moment back in 1985.