SKUBA films

Brainstorm is the best-known Latvian band in Europe. They started out 25 years ago, when most of them were in the same class at school. That was the time when people in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia joined hands to create the Baltic Way, and the fall of the Berlin Wall became a symbol of the hunger for freedom. The young men listened to U2, the Scorpions and Roxette and dreamed of becoming famous. Now Brainstorm is famous in Russia as well. The musicians are Latvians who live in Latvia, but they reap profits in Russia. Brainstorm has experienced the most interesting and intense period of modern European history. This period has also been a dramatic time for the band itself.

A film about a unique personality with an unbreakable spirit – Gunārs Astra. He can be considered as Latvian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn or Václav Havel. Twenty years he spent in Soviet prisons because of anti-government thinking. In a 1983 trial by the Latvian SSR, Astra said, “I believe this time will fade like an evil nightmare.” The fate of Gunārs Astra himself was tragic. Like Alexei Navalny in Russia, Astra was poisoned with tea on a train to Saint Petersburg. A week later, Gunārs Astra died. Astra’s death became a symbol of light on the long road to the restoration of Latvia’s independence.

A film about hockey, sweat and blood, about how hockey personalities are created and hockey legends are born - Helmuts Balderis, Mihails Vasiļonoks, Juris Reps, Artūrs Irbe and others. Hockey legends Sanda Ozoliņa's last season and Arta Ābola's first season as head coach. About Riga Dinamo's most successful season in the KHL to date. We will be at the team's pre-game meeting, where filming is usually not allowed. We will meet the people who shaped Latvian and Riga Dinamo hockey - Viktors Tihonovs, Elmārs Baurs, Vladimirs Jurzinovs, Pjotrs Vorobjovs, Ēvalds Grabovskis and Jānis Kvēps. With Normunds Sējējs and Mārtiņš Grundmanis, we will visit the former sports base in Kandava. From Riga's Daugava and the second league to Riga Dinamo's silver medals. About players' superstitions and fans' passion. About emotions and beautiful goals.

Nora Bumbiere (1947-1994) was one of the popular estrada-singer in Latvia. This will be a documentary about Nora. About Nora, who has left us an unforgettable musical story. A story that it's time to tell.

Kārlis Bardelis and Gints Barkovskis (Latvia), have a plan to row from Luderitz, Namibia, to Rio das Ostras, Brazil. They have no ocean rowing experience, they've only got a second-hand rowboat and a big dream.

Captured by Borders is a film about travelling the world in old and transformed fire trucks. They have been in more than 100 countries, on five continents, driven for more than 100 000 kilometres. As a result, we were confident that no one could stop us. Until the fire trucks were blocked on the border between China and Vietnam. By one of the most difficult border crossings in the world. After almost eight years, a rescue expedition leaves Latvia to bring the fire trucks home. How will they fare? That’s what this adventure documentary is about.

A moving biographical story about two-time Paralympic champion Rihards Snikus. The film traces his journey to the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris and highlights significant turning points in the athlete's life.

A film documenting contemporary Latvian reality along the banks of the river Gauja while channelling one of the first Latvian sound documentary films, Gauja (1934). “Along with producers Sandijs Semjonovs and Gundars Rēders and editor Atis Klimovičs, we witnessed incidents and events along the banks of the river some 80 years later. We captured them along with the views of folks on this river in a documentally poetic style reflecting the reality in Latvia,” explains director Mārtiņš Grauds.

A story about the emotions that hockey brings, the behind-the-scenes world of Latvian hockey and its place on the world hockey map, and how young boys become hockey players. A story about Latvian hockey today and its future prospects. The filmmakers traveled to Canada, Russia, Switzerland, and Scandinavia to meet with Zemgus Girgensons, Teodors and Valentīns Bļugers, the Rēdlihs family, Elvis Merzļikins, Rodrigo Laviņš, Bob Hartley – players, coaches, and hockey families. The creative team behind Born for Hockey seeks answers to the question of what it takes to become a good player in Latvia and around the world. How do hockey players who have already earned their place remember their first years in hockey? How do their parents and coaches remember them? How does the battle for a place in the arena unfold?

The film tells the story of the career of multiple award-winning rally driver Mārtiņš Sesks and reveals how rallying has become one of the most popular sports in Latvia.

This film looks at the Brukna commune which helps addicts recover with hard work and lots of prayer. They spend their days restoring a church and offer a look at their past lives, which they’ve escaped for a moment.

The documentary chronicles the life stories of two brothers, Kristaps and Krists. Kristaps, the elder brother, is disabled and has trouble talking, but he can rap. His younger brother Krists is one of the best freestyle BMX bikers in Latvia.

Kaspars Kambala is one of the most prominent basketball players of his generation. He was a member of the Latvia's 2009 basketball team known as "Now or Never", and his harsh image and scandalous lifestyle have earned him attention in many situations. What lies behind Kaspars Kambala's scars, tattoos and this seemingly strong athlete?

This film about four legionnaires attempts to give them back their past. Kazimirs Šusts, Jānis Mencis, Imants Zeltiņš, Kārlis Smiltēns – they were born and raised at the same time as the Latvian state, and together with it they were drawn into a war in which both the state and the people's hope and struggle was to stay alive. However, the war did not destroy them, and each of them survived and found refuge in the Latvian state. They had enough strength to resist the hostile Soviet present and the difficulties of exile, to maintain their humanity, to work and to await the return of the Latvian state.

In 2004, a successful banker known as "Mr. Dice" mysteriously disappeared off the face off the earth, along with millions of dollars from investors and friends alike. Desperate to find answers, his best friend Kaspars Roga embarks upon a journey, ultimately leading into the heart of Africa where Mr Dice has reinvented himself… this time as the owner of the diamond mine, begging the question - were they ever really friends? Or was he a pawn in Dice's greater scheme?

For more than five years, the active inhabitants of Wasini island have been carrying out a unique coral reef restoration work.

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.

Māris Strazds (also known as "Mr Black Stork") is a man who's been studying black storks and their behaviour for forty years. His love for and relationship with these beautiful birds is longer than the relationship with his wife. Having spent more than half of his life following black storks, Māris is aware that due to deforestation the number of these birds in Latvia is rapidly approaching zero.