Ivars Arutyunyan

Short documentary film that captures the spirit of a new generation of Latvian jazz musicians shaping the contemporary sound of Latvia. With a poetic visual style and personal reflections from the artists themselves, the film explores how jazz becomes a dialogue between generations — a space of tension, competition, and ultimately, self-discovery.

A story of a Latvian family making tentative plans to return to Latvia. Ģirts, a doctor working in Denmark for nine years, receives an invitation to set up a professional practice back in Latvia – a welcome opportunity, as he would like to look after his parents better. But things aren't as simple as that, and his family is divided over the issue.

Helēna feels unfulfilled in her marriage to Rihards, a university lecturer. Together with their children Ēriks and Maija, they go to their house in the countryside to renovate it as Helēna hopes to soon be able to organise dance retreats there. More surprising than the dreariness of their relationship are the creatures that inhabit their forest house – fleshy caterpillars in the wallpaper, slithering worms on the dinner plates, and stag beetles on the damp walls. As the terror of the insects takes hold, Helēna and Rihards each take up positions on opposing front lines in a war that also uncovers the children’s phobias and losses they have not yet processed.

In the north of Latvia, in Drusti, there is "Savvaļa", a place where art and untamed nature meet. The young artist Katrina grew up here, for whom the forest is a place to find one's way, not to get lost. "Umbra" is a poetic documentation of the open-air art space created by the painter Andris Eglītis and his associates through Katrīna's personal experience and the scope of the world of the detached painter. It is a story about a community of artists and their creative everyday life – full of both joy and doubt.