Riga, August 21, LETA. On September 17 this year, the film studio “Mistrus Media” and the feature film “Change” made by director Reinis Kalviņš will be premiered in Latvia, the project manager Katrīna Ķeķe informed LETA.
The premiere will take place at the Splendid Palace cinema, and at the same time as the premiere in Latvia, the film will be available in the largest regional cinemas, as well as in smaller Latvian cinema screenings.
According to her, this film will be Kalvin’s debut film in full-length cinema.
Ķeķe pointed out that the film “Shift” is a criminal drama that tells about the events of one night in the life of a new taxi driver Marek.
“To support his son, Mareks works as a taxi driver at night. Money is stolen from his car, which Mareks owes to the boss for the crashed car. He has to make up for the lost as soon as possible, so he goes to the airport and goes around Riga hotels. “Ignore the unwritten rules of the taxi world, which upset the delicate balance between competing taxi companies. As morning approaches, stolen money is no longer his biggest problem,” said.
The film tells the story of the main character’s generation, who was born shortly before Latvia’s independence, experienced the restoration of independence and its growth during the changes of the 1990s, when “everyone could and tried to become something else”.
Ķeķe pointed out that the idea of the film “Change” encompasses a broader description of the generation, showing how generations grown up at different times have chosen to live in a particular social environment, making them think about personal choices in crisis situations and the crisis of moral values in society.
At the same time, she informed that the film director had a film education at the Baltic Film and Media School in Tallinn, and supplemented her knowledge with a master’s degree in the program “Bela Tarr Film Factory” at the University of Sarajevo. He has worked as a producer of the film “1906”, as well as was the executive producer of the Finnish feature film “The Hatching” shot in Latvia.
The director of the film himself has indicated that the idea for the film came to him while he was still living in Sarajevo, where he sometimes had to travel by illegal taxi. At the same time, headlines have appeared in the Latvian media about settling mutual bills between taxi drivers in Riga and the division of territories for receiving passengers at the airport.
“At first, it sounded almost unbelievable that there was still such a bubble in Riga at the beginning of the 21st century, which has not been affected by change and where the principles of the nineties actually prevailed. It seemed interesting , which is faced by taxi drivers, but which is not particularly open to the outside view, “said Kalvins.
The cinematographer of the film is the Romanian cinematographer George Chipers-Lilemarks, the screenplay was written by Kalvins and Aldis Bukšs, the editing director is Armands Začs, the sound director is Artis Dukaļskis, the film artist is Jānis Bijubens, the make-up artist is Maija Gundare, executive producer – Ilze Krūmiņliepa, actor selection director – Māra Liniņa, while the film producer is Gints Grūbe.
The main role in the film is played by actor Edgars Ozoliņš, who has been an actor at the Liepāja Theater since 2009.
Ķeķe informed that the film studio “Mistrus Media” has made such Latvian feature films as Viesturs Kairiss’s “Chronicle of Melania”, Dāvis Sīmanis’ “Father’s Night”, debut feature films “Film” and “Eva”.
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