Writing
A documentary about a 78-year-old Indian woman in New York who is the world's most passionate theatergoer. Nicki Cochrane has been seeing a play every day for more than 25 years, acquiring free tickets using a variety of ingenious means.
In the ice-free months of the year Father Gennady captains a barge transformed into a floating Orthodox Church on a mission trip along the Volga-Don Canal to the remote Russian villages. At each port of call Father Gennady leads church services, distributes holy sacraments and hears confessions. But some unexpected circumstances cause the mission to suddenly take a rather different turn.
What draws thousands of people to leave everything behind and venture out into Siberian taiga, following Visarion, an ex-agent of the Soviet police who proclaims to be Jesus? The film tries to answer this question, showing the construction of the New Jerusalem, a resettlement «destined» to become the birthplace of a new civilization after the imminent apocalypse takes place.
The story of Aivars Ritenieks, a father and a coach, brings together a passion for sports and a passion for family. He is determined to raise his sons to be Olympic athletes. Boxing is their life. They must fight many fights with the corruption in sports, bureaucracy, envy and ill wishes, the demons of their past and themselves. He’s a fighter who stands up against all odds and refuses to give up his principles... What is the price of victory?
Inese (41) and Karlis (62) occupy an illegally built hut in the suburbs of Riga in Latvia. After the collapse of socialism, they have found themselves at the bottom of the social ladder, doomed to fighting for mere existence. They live on a single retiring allowance and other people’s leftovers. They are neither alcoholics nor criminals, they are les misérables of today. They are growing scraggy vegetables, picking mushrooms, gathering windfallen branches for fuel, and breeding earthworms for anglers. Everything they put their hands to falls through… After fifteen years of living together, Karlis and Inese are expecting their first baby.
At the end of the Second World War, when the German army retreated from Latvia, it also took along 700 boxes of materials from Latvian museums. If not for a young woman named Mērija Grīnberga, the exhibition halls of many museums in Latvia would be empty today. Grīnberga was the only volunteer who in 1944 went along with the train carrying the treasures of Latvian art in order to return with them back to Riga. The German occupying forces tried to take them away; the Soviet occupation forces brought them back; Mērija completed her duty. As gratitude for her journey, Mērija was sacked from her job at the museum and incessantly viewed with suspicion.
An affirmative film about the price of risk and patriotism that is possible only for adventurists. Ivars Beitāns and his team do the impossible – in spite of obstacles they build a Latvian pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai, switch on the vertical wind tunnels and fly in sight of the whole world. But what is the price of the flight? What should one do to not let his whole life “pass by”?
A decoy is an assistant to a dog trainer whose task is to be both a provocateur and a victim. Dogs and their owners have different attitudes towards the decoy's task.
Five blonde women confirm and break stereotypes about blondes and their men. They love, wait, annoy, challenge, surprise – they live next to us – each one different and each with her own blonde story. Mind and emotions, flesh and blood determine the most unexpected actions.
A TV film about what has been experienced in this troubled corner of the Caucasus. Three journeys capture the lives of ordinary people in a war-torn land who, despite everything, have retained their self-respect and honor their traditions. What we see with our own eyes breaks negative stereotypes and makes us admire the moral resilience and self-respect of a people who have suffered so much.
A film about how ideology destroys nations and controls people's destinies – a documentary story about a family turned into strangers. Little Nora reads her great-grandmother Eleonora's diaries and witnesses an entire political era through her eyes.
After the lives of several people are tied into a intriguing knot upon meeting police officer Krasts one hot summer day, they’re all brought together again on a full moon winter night. Intrigue develops among a couple of lovers, Gints and Elga, three adventure-race participants with one woman, Renate, on their team, three generations of a family whose father, Karlis, died in a tragic hunting accident, Karlis’s daughter Aija, his former lover Livija, and a young girl hardened by life, who lives at a Christian home for expectant mothers. A detective twist is added by a bit of poison, which one of them will get.
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.
Pavlensky/Pawlenski, artist and activist, is leading the way in forging social change in Russia. Through an multiple courageous performances, he acts as society's conscience in the face of an increasingly totalitarian state. From lying naked in a coil of barbed wire, to nailing his scrotum to the floor of Red Square, his acts of defiance aim to spark debate and catalyse reform. This documentary follows his mission to challenge the state.
Chechen boy Mansur, who was born and grew up during war in Chechnya, thanks to his mother Sacita’s persistence and his own talent, garners awards in dance contests all over the world, reminding people of his nation’s culture and valour.
Former ice researcher and Orthodox pastor Andrey Voronin is called Ice-Breaker because of his brave opinions. A unique children’s home, whose foster children are now famous in the whole of Russia, was created under his guidance. The pastor thinks that life is a fight and you have to be prepared for it all of the time. This is why, together with the children, he conquers the tops of mountains.
The film is a typical auteur work with an observant but emotionally charged attitude. The film's action takes place while driving past the villages of Latgale. The houses are located right by the road, but few people manage to cross the threshold of this peculiar way of life. The people are welcoming and open if you manage to speak to them from the heart, but the peculiarity of this life remains an unfathomable mystery. The film crew visited more than 20 homes in Tiskādi, Poromonovka, Ružāni, and Silmale, listened to stories of life and death, sang along with the cheerful ones, and mourned with the sad ones. The result of these human encounters is a film about a world of isolation and immeasurable vitality – the Old Believer villages of Latgale.
A travel film about adventures in snowy Russia, visiting Russia's smallest nation - the Tofolars in the world's coldest pole - Oymyakon. Cut off from the outside world, Tofolaria, rich, harsh Yakutia - home to a tenacious people and the birthplace of reindeer, beckons with its poignant romance.
It is 20-30 degrees below zero. Finally, the Uda River has frozen over, becoming a lifeline between the vast Russian mainland and the Russian Tibet hidden high in the mountains - the Tofolaria Mountains, home to Russia's smallest ethnic group — a land of untouched nature and its people, who have become victims of the negative influence of civilization.
