Riga, June 2, LETA. During the International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival “One World” in the Czech Republic, the documentary film “Homo Sovieticus” created jointly by Latvia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic will have an international premiere, producer Elīna Gediņa-Ducena informed LETA.
She said that the festival will take place in Prague until June 6. According to Gediņa-Ducena, the International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival “One World” is the largest human rights film festival in the world. It is a large-scale cultural event in the Czech Republic, which attracts more than 120,000 spectators every year and takes place in more than 30 cities. Each year, the festival displays about 100 documentaries from around the world on social, political, environmental, media and human rights issues.
The producer pointed out that the documentary “Homo Sovieticus”, co-produced by Latvia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, is a story about a Soviet man or “Homo Sovieticus” thirty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
According to Gediņa-Ducena, the film’s director Ivo Briedis and journalist Rita Ruduša investigate whether the slavery and habit of obedience acquired as a result of Soviet upbringing promotes nostalgia for the Soviet era and resistance to totalitarianism.
The filmmakers meet with their peers in Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Armenia and the Czech Republic, who, in the wake of the Soviet Union, were invited to the central television of 1991 to discuss whether or not to be in the Soviet Union under Vladimir Pozner. They meet people who long for life in the Soviet Union and experts – Anna Aplbaum and Lev Gudkov, who have studied the phenomenon of “Homo Sovieticus”.
The director of the film is Briedis, the author of the screenplay is Ruduša. The film “Homo Sovieticus” is a joint production of the Latvian film studio “Mistrus Media”, the Lithuanian film studio “Monoklis” and the Czech film studio “Frame Films”. The main cameraman is Mārtiņš Jurevics, the editing directors are Tomašs Elšīks from the Czech Republic and Toms Krauklis, the author of the music is composer Martins Bjalobžeskis from Lithuania.
The screening of the film to a wider audience in Latvia is planned for August 2021. It is planned that the filmmakers will be able to meet at the conversation festival “Lamp” to discuss the issues raised in the film.
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