The Latvian Film Marathon on May 4 will return to the cinema “Splendid Palace” this year, offering spectators free live screenings in both cinemas and outdoors. In order to watch a movie in the cinema, an invitation with a registered seat in the cinema hall must be removed before the screening, invitations can be received at the box office of the cinema “Splendid Palace” from 27 April or registered electronically. cinema website. Within the framework of the film marathon, films will be shown in the cinema with English subtitles, inviting Riga guests to celebrate the Latvian holidays together.
The program of the Latvian film marathon in the cinema will begin with the honoring of the director Rolands Kalniņš (1922) in the Great Hall at 13.00 – the Latvian cinema classic will turn 100 in May, and the old master promises to come to the honorary show himself. Rolands Kalniņš’s contribution to the history of Latvian cinema will be honored with his most famous and symbolic film “Four white shirts” (1967, restored in 2017), which is included in the selection of the Cannes Film Festival “Cannes Classics”, will be complemented by the group “Carnival Youth” and the premiere of a new film dedicated to Roland Kalniņš. short film “Over a Hundred Years” (2022) was created by a team of authors: screenwriter Daira Āboliņa, director Agita Cāne-Ķīle, cameraman Andrejs Rudzāts, photographer Māris Ločmelis, producer Matīss Kaža.
The traditional hall will host a traditional screening of Latvian animated films at 15.00 – the latest films for children of all ages, some of which are already in high demand at world film festivals. The program includes a lullaby by Mara Linina “Squat, squat”Dace Rīdūze puppet film “Dusmukule”Nila Skapan’s last film “Diendusa”The Story of Vladimir Leshchov ‘s Childhood Memories “Return”A short film drawn by Edmund Janson “Guard of honor”.
The premiere of two feature films will also be celebrated on May 4 in the Great Hall of the cinema. Documentary film by director Laila Pakalniņa and cameraman Gints Bērziņš will be shown for the first time in Latvia “Home” (screening 17.00), which had its world premiere at two major European festivals last autumn – the Baltic Festival of the Tallinn Festival “Black Nights” and the Amsterdam IDFA selection “Masters”. The filmmakers have visited 75 Latvian homes, and almost 180 Latvians can be seen in the film’s footage, confirming the feeling of home, which is especially relevant all over Europe today. “Home is what you can’t take with you,” said director Laila Pakalniņa.
Bach vs. Covid
Photo: shot from the film
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Director Ivars Zviedris has just finished a documentary “Bahs pret Covid”, which began filming two years ago, in the early days of the pandemic. Gradually, the central character of the film became the musician Normunds, who plays the cello every day in the Dome Square in Old Riga – if there are no people, then pigeons. The authors of the film and Normunds, who closely follows the world on television, create a joint pandemic diary, accompanied by Bach’s music everywhere – in hospitals and vaccination centers, empty streets and closed airports, protests and homes where parents and children learn to be together and go to school. .
In the Small Hall of the Cinema this year, the program of the Latvian Film Marathon on May 4 is in one way or another connected with Ukraine and the ongoing war in this country. A documentary will be shown at 15.30 “Mariupole” (2016), which had its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. The director of the film, Lithuanian Mantas Kvedaravičus (1976-2022), filmed city life shortly after the start of the war in 2014, when the microworld war of the various heroes of the film had not yet shattered, but rumbled on the edge as an unclear threat. In 2022, the director returned to Mariupol with a movie camera and was killed in early April. Now his film has become a monument to both the devastated city and the author himself.
The Ukrainian-themed feature film will continue at the end of the evening (screening at 7.30 pm) “White Raven” (2022, directed by Marjan Bušan), an emotional heroic drama about the events of 2014 at the very beginning of the war in the Donetsk region. As the Russian army attacks, the naive world of the pacifist Mykola collapses, he decides to protect his land and becomes a brave professional sniper. The protagonist, Pavlo Aldashin, is also currently in the ranks of the Ukrainian army, the NKC said.
Expanding the theme of brave resistance to political events, a documentary produced by the museum “Latvians in the World” will be screened in the Small Hall of the cinema at 5.30 pm “Valiant! – Journey to a free Latvia” (2021, director Māra Pelēce) – an inspiring story about the imagination, insanity, courage and national patriotic attitude of young Latvians in exile, organizing resistance actions in the 1980s to constantly remind the governments of the world that Latvia has occupied, not voluntarily joined the USSR. One of the main characters of the film, cars, promises to come to the audience Valiant owner Juris Bļodnieks from the USA.
At the end of the evening, with the onset of darkness, a screening is planned at the open-air cinema “Splendid Garden” – Hundred Years of Animation Film “Jacob, Mimmi and the Talking Dogs” (2019, directed by Edmunds Jansons) with Ukrainian subtitles.
Film critic Anita Uzulniece will be officially opened at the cinema at 15.00 book “My Cinema (and) Time” in two volumes (published by “LaikaBook”).
The National Cinema Center will offer on May 4 film screenings in the vicinity of Riga – Mežaparks Grand Stage, Ilguciems and Imanta, where animated films “The Sun Ran in the Sky” (2018), “Bize and the Neglected” (2017), “Our Ome Rolls” (2017), “Vaikiki” (2017) will be shown at different times, also the feature film “Jelgava ’94” (2019) and the documentary “Valiant! – Journey to Free Latvia” (2021).
A different holiday program will be available on the portal of the National Cinema Center filmas.lv – worldwide on May 4, according to local time in each country. You will be able to watch a feature film by director Viesturs Kairiss online “City by the river” (2020, with English subtitles) and three Centennial films – Edmund Janson’s feature film “Jacob, Mimmi and the Talking Dogs” (2019, with subtitles in Ukrainian) Kristīne Želves documentary “Mary’s Journey” (2018), which tells about the saving of cultural values during the war and echoes the current situation in Ukraine, and the documentary film by Ivars Seleckas “Continued“(2018), which this time also represents the selection of the 30th anniversary of the National Cinema Center.
The Latvian Film Marathon is organized by the National Film Center on May 4, supported by the Riga City Council and Latvian film studios, and the cooperation partners are the State Film Archive of the Latvian National Archives and the Cultural Systems Information Center (KISC).
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