Kinolats

A film about Vera Mukhina (1889-1953) based on the diaries of the outstanding Riga-born sculptress who studied in Paris with Rodin’s pupil Bourdelle, the master of European sculpture. At the 1937 Paris World Exposition, Mukhina presents her monumental sculptural ensemble Worker and Peasant Woman. Weighing 75 tons and 53metres high, it becomes a sensation. Mukhina truly believes in human ideas, and this is successfully used by the USSR propaganda machine.

The film provides an insight into the performance cycle "Ladies' Paradise," which covers the period from 1900 to 2000 in moving images on screen and stage and tells the story of European fashion history. The performance materials are supplemented by interviews with costume designers and actors. Fifty theater and television actors and fifteen costume designers participated in the performances. The performance series was one of the events of the "Riga 2014" program.

The creative documentary Piano Player is a story about the piano player and musician Oscar Strock, who was a well known tango music composer in 1920s Europe. Nobody knew him – only his music was well known. The life of Strock is like a side-show of everlasting debts, long voyages and wild and unlucky love affairs that find their best interpretation through his tango music. The piano player is a man, who barely arranges his life according to the political and economic circumstances in the world. To earn money, he plays for pubs and cinema theatres in Riga, Berlin and Paris, and for lovers, he writes the most romantic tango music.

In two monumental symbols of the national awareness sculptor Kārlis Zāle has immortalized his vision about the state of Latvia. Freedom Monument is the statement of the sculptor’s love for his native country. Kārlis Zāle with his characteristic monumental touch sees life in large and powerful lines; the same way he perceives also sculpture that requires much vital force and daring. The full-length documentary “The Wounded Rider” is based on facts from the life of the sculptor Kārlis Zāle and documents on the construction of the Freedom Monument, providing insight in the political and social scene of the age and presenting outstanding figures in the culture and art together with the ideals of that time.

The fading romance of the era of train travel is portrayed in the faces of railway workers, at lonely stations where trains no longer stop, on empty tracks where trains no longer run.

In ancient times, Latvians could blow up whatever they wanted – mushrooms, trees, or even other Latvians. Once, he decided to blow up the world to make more room for trees, mushrooms, and other Latvians...

Documentary feature about the famous Latvian poet and translator Uldis Bērziņš. The film tells about the everyday life of the poet, his work, his imprisoned son, his family and his best friend, a KGB agent. Includes excerpts of the newest poetry book of the poet, “Idylls“.

In 1850, Baron Vulfs, who had arrived from Germany, named the farmhouses on his Gaujiena estate after world capitals. In 2002, the people of Gaujiena opened their European center in the baron's castle garden. A film about everyday life and celebrations in the Latvian countryside.

The international film festival Arsenāls has been a fixture on the Riga scene for the last 20 years. It has introduced new film aesthetic and was one of the only creatively free events during Soviet times. Over the years the festival has influenced culture and society in Eastern Europe, continually dazzling us with its creativity. The film is a portrait of the director, the father of Arsenals and trusty knight of surrealism.