
Elza Radziņa
Acting
Biography
Elza Radziņa (February 10, 1917; Kharkiv, Russian Empire – August 18, 2005; Riga, Latvia) was a Latvian theater and cinema actress, master of the spoken word (reader). She received award of People's Artist of the USSR in 1976 and Order of the Three Stars in 1995. She studied in Jelgava theater studio in 1942. After the World War II worked in Jelgava Drama theater (1945-1953). For a brief moment she worked in Valmiera Drama theater, but from 1954 worked in Latvian National Theater, where she became one of the leading actresses. In 1949 she made her debut in biographical drama film "Rainis" from Riga Film Studio.
Known For

No description available.
Смерть под парусом

Shakespeare's 17th century masterpiece about the "Melancholy Dane" was given one of its best screen treatments by Soviet director Grigori Kozintsev. Kozintsev's Elsinore was a real castle in Estonia, utilized metaphorically as the "stone prison" of the mind wherein Hamlet must confine himself in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet himself is portrayed (by Innokenti Smoktunovsky) as the sole sensitive intellectual in a world made up of debauchers and revellers. Several of Kozintsev directorial choices seem deliberately calculated to inflame the purists: Hamlet's delivers his "To be or not to be" soliloquy with his back to the camera, allowing the audience to fill in its own interpretations.
Hamlet

A medieval love story with lots of adventures. The times are troubled - there's a revolt of peasants going on. To secure its safety a monastery chases for a relics of a holy Brigitte. A nobleman promises to get it if he gets beautiful Agnes as a reward. But she fells in love with a handsome adventurer. The monastery has to act shrewd now and play double game.
The Last Relic

King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.
King Lear

Accountant Sergey Ivanovich is retiring. Finally, he will be able to devote all his free time to his family: he will help his daughter Natalya with the housework, raise his granddaughter, visit his sons who live in different cities... But it turns out that adult children do not need parental care, and Sergei Ivanovich feels uneasy at work...
Sergey Ivanovich Retires

The path of a young revolutionary during the formation of Soviet power during the Bolshevik coup.
How the Steel Was Tempered

No description available.
Theatre

Mr. Fortescue, owner of a big company, unexpectedly dies. The autopsy shows that he has been poisoned. Nobody actually loved him, and even his family members had their reasons to kill him. But who really did it? And who is responsable for killing his young servant and his wife within the next couple of days? Of course the only person who can answer this question is Ms. Marple. And of course, the murderer is the person you least expected it to be.
Secret of the Blackbirds

Musician Stefan meets a young attractive woman Lidia. Stefan is going on tour to Austria, and Lydia, "accidentally" remembering her Viennese acquaintance, asks to give her a souvenir from Moldova. In Vienna, Stefan is met by people who are well aware of his private life and even familiar with his diary. The musician begins to suspect something is wrong, but when his daughter's well-being is threatened, Stefan becomes truly worried...
Agent of the Secret Service

On May 1, 1960, on the eve of the meeting of the heads of government of the USSR and the United States, American pilot Francis Powers carried out a provocative "Flight" action on a Lockheed U-2 aircraft. While crossing the border, the plane was shot down, and a secret CIA agent, pilot Powers, appeared in court, and soon fully admitted his guilt. Fragments of the process and all the events related to the provocative flight are reproduced with documentary accuracy.
We Accuse

The great actress Julia Lambert suddenly realizes that she is, alas, getting old. What can help a woman who has absolutely everything? Only new love. And Julia falls in love with the first person she meets: an ambitious young man who has not a penny behind his soul. So begins a new life - a new romance and new tears. How else could it be?
Theatre

Little Littlefinger's evil stepmother exploits him amd makes his life very hard, so the little shepherd boy decides to leave home and seek happiness in the world outside. There little Littlefinger meets the Wind Mother, Forest Mother and a little old man on his way. Each of them gives him a chore to do that earns him a gift with magical power, which comes in handy when he has to defeat Scrooges, Lop-Eared Man and the Devil himself. While traveling in the world and looking for happiness, he realises he misses his grandmother and little sister...
Littlefinger
A Latvian fairy-tale film based on Anna Brigadere’s classic play. It follows two stepsisters: gentle, hardworking Maija and spoiled, idle Paija whose trials in the underworld reveal their true natures, with rewards and consequences to match.
Maija and Paija

Roger Mills, a Harley Street specialist, is taking a sailing holiday on the Norfolk Broads. When his six guests find him at the tiller of his yacht with a smile on his face and a gunshot through his heart, all six fall under suspicion.
Death Under Sail

In 17th-century Latvia, as Swedish and Polish armies march across the war-torn land, the corrupt councillors of Riga stand ready to hand over the city’s keys to whichever foreign power pays the highest price. But three jolly friends — Andris, Pēteris, and Ērmanis — together with their female companions Rūta, Anna, and Lēne, refuse to surrender without a fight. Rallying the people of Riga, they rise in a courageous struggle for freedom of their city.
Devil's Servants

No description available.
Tauriņdeja

Alan York is a race horse jockey who sees his friend and chief rival jockey fall to his death during a steeplechase race. Alan knows it could not have been an accident. He pursues clues while meeting a lovely young lady and her fascinating uncle, until he finally discovers why his friend died... and why he is next to die.
Favorite

Land surveyors arrive in two parishes to measure and redistribute manor land. The rivalry between both feoffees for land and woman begins.
The Times of the Surveyors

A young woman, Regina, has been killed in her apartment. Investigator Anderson holds Regina’s husband as a suspect for a murder because he is unable to remember his location at the time of the fateful event. Gradually, Anderson is convinced that Oto has not only killed his wife, but he also tries to hide his true identity – notorious criminal Schmit.
Hide-and-seek

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