LV
Russian Federation, December 31, 1999. After President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of the country. From that day and for a year, Vitaly Mansky's camera documented Putin's rise to power. The story of a privileged witness. The harsh explanation of the reason why politics is the art of possibility of achieving the best with the support of many, but also of giving the worst in return.
Nov 2018
Raimonds Pauls is almost 85 years old, rehearses almost every day and performs at least once a week. What drives him? Not only he is the most popular composer in Latvia: his songs are sung all over the world. "Dāvāja Māriņa" is so popular in Japan that Paul received the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun. In concerts, he collaborates with world stars of Latvian origin - soprano Elīna Garanča, organist Iveta Apkalna, conductor Mariss Jansons. The Latvian Television film crew follows him during the pandemic, realizing that the restrictions and threats of Covid-19 hardly stop the Maestro in the course of his eternal engine. How does he cope with the challenges that time imposes on a person's physical form and the loneliness when most friends have passed away? What is the source of his inexhaustible lifestyle and creative spirit?
Jan 2021
Guttenmorgen leaves the government office to see how people live in the countryside, and on the way he gets stuck in Vienciem.
Nov 2016
A TV documentary about Latvian actor Uldis Pūcītis, featuring fragments from many of his films ("Swap Treader", "Four White Shirts" and others), as well as stories by people who knew him - actors and directors, former lovers and classmates.
Dec 2020
The film is based on the work of the Swedish writer August Strindberg.
Dec 1990
A family drama based on the short story "The Edge of the Abyss" by Raimonds Trasuns.
Jan 1998
The documentary depicts passionate and diverse people who decided to create a dance group during the Covid-19 pandemic in order to start learning folk dances ahead of the 2023 Latvian Song and Dance Festival. What starts as a joke in a WhatsApp group turns into a serious commitment and soon plans are being hatched and rehearsal rooms are being booked. Will the dream of the dance troupe come true? The film also highlights the problem that many amateur art collectives have experienced during the two years spent in the pandemic.
Nov 2022
Instead of Einars Pelšs' eighth poetry book, he publishes his collected works, but the buyer of the book receives an ordinary brick. He translates the authors of the Russian Golden Age and publishes them under his own name, challenging the boundaries of literature. Is a poet who makes fun of art unique or exactly what we expect from contemporary authors? Einarrative is an extraordinary story that portrays the narrative of the life of Einārs Pelšs. In the film, this narrative is an experience of contrasting changes both in its visual style and in Einars’ poetic works and personality, allowing him to get involved in the depiction of the narrative himself, making the film as Einārs Pelšs' audiovisual collected works.
The documentary film "Dream Cat", produced by the Latvian Television program "Forbidden method", explains and analyses how the Latvian animated film "Flow" reached the top of world cinema, winning the most prestigious film industry awards "Golden Globe", "Oscar" and many others.
Mar 2025
Līgatne river ferry crossing takes locals, tourists, passers-by and cars from early spring to the fall over river Gauja. It's the last of what were once many such 'rope ferries' across Gauja, but it remains more than an historical oddity and plays an important part in many lives. At just 12 square meters, the wooden ferry nevertheless encompasses an intriguing and sometimes surprising selection of what constitutes 21st-century Latvia.
Nov 2020
“Mierjema” in Liv means “to be by the sea”. The film documents a very diverse population of Latvia that lives, works and spends time on the shores of the Baltic Sea. In the form of short, kaleidoscopic stories the film captures and reflects on people’s habits, needs and dreams. To what extent the importance of the sea is to meet our basic needs and - how important is it to our spirit?
Dec 2021
Dinārs is a Latvian schlager singer popular with the ladies and known for his big cat mane. The eponymous film follows his path over a turbulent season of work.
Behind the all-seeing eyes of surveillance cameras, there is always someone watching the Latvian capital. "Full Moon Serenade" offers the viewer a unique opportunity to get to the other side of the surveillance cameras on the nights of the full moon to see Rīga's night life in all its quirky forms. The film is a tribute or a serenade to the nocturnal city, night dwellers and night watchers.
'Žagari' traces the lives of Andrejs and Juris Žagars, brothers from the city of Cēsis, who both became distinguished in the arts as actors and administrators of art institutions, while both also found success as entrepreneurs. The original plan of the filmmakers was to show two strong personalities with their characteristic relationship and rivalries. However, fate intervened during the filming process, transforming the result into a powerful and touching portrait of brotherly love and the importance of family ties.
Oct 2019
In a house soon to be demolished lives a little girl. When her mother dies, she is forced to look for shelter at the side of a man, the only one still left in the house. He is a strange, somber man with his only companions being two endlessly trustworthy dogs - Monk and Prince.
Dec 2002
More than twenty years after Vladimir Putin came to supreme power in Russia on May 7, 2000, Russian society is deeply divided. A young, modern generation opposes the growing repression by the regime, which still retains the support of many members of previous generations. Who are these ordinary citizens who dream of living in a different Russia? What price will they have to pay to achieve the freedom and justice they so desire?
Feb 2022
In this film a young man and his curmudgeonly grandfather are going 1,800 km to northern Russia in an old Zhiguli car, hoping to find the grave of their great-grandfather, who was deported. The grandfather Andris is sceptic over the lofty quest, initiated by his grand-son, as it’s not known what awaits them at their destination. Andris thinks they won’t find anything and will come back to Latvia without ever learning what happened to his father. However ever-optimistic Kārlis wants to use the journey not only to find answers about the past but also become closer to his grandfather who raised him. They both lost their parents as children.
Oct 2016
“Hike '44" is a personal story by director Lauris Abele and cinematographer Marcis Abele about how to maintain humanity when the world falls apart. The protagonist of the film, Melita Abele (89), retraces her refugee path from 1944, when, at the age of 14, she had to leave her home at the beginning of winter. Asking strangers for shelter, spend nights in the woods until she found refuge and warm hearts. Through the use of animation, the viewer will be guided through Melita's memories on a journey through recent and present-day Latvia until a series of events brings Melita to what she has been trying to accomplish for 75 years.
Nov 2019
Sep 2016
The most difficult moment in parents’ lives is when their children leave home. Valentina and her long-awaited and selflessly raised son Ruslan, live in a small Latvian town. Ruslan is now a teenager and a talented young pianist. The town they live in is too small for him to develop his talent, so he should head to Riga to continue his studies. Through this film we follow along the experience and the feelings of the mother who should let her son go - and leave her.