On September 17, the debut feature film of the new director Reinis Kalviņš will be premiered – the criminal drama “Change”, which tells about one dangerous night in the life of a taxi driver Marek. Inspired by his experience, as well as real events in the world of illegal taxis in Latvia, Reinis Kalviņš has created a story about the tense conditions in which people live next to us.
After long rehearsals, the main role – taxi driver Mareka – confirmed the actor of Liepāja Theater Edgars Ozoliņš, with whom the director conducted extensive research on the daily life of taxi drivers and the darkest side of Riga’s nightlife. Is it possible to break out of one’s restrictive social environment and what makes “Change” a story that can appeal to both local and foreign viewers? The director talks about these and other issues related to the film Reinis Kalvins, actor Edgars Ozolins and producer Gints Grūbe no Mistrus Media.
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Marta Elīna Martinsone: The first general question to you for everyone – what are your feelings before the premiere and are your plans somehow affected by the limitations of Covid-19?
Reinis KalvinsA: The biggest impact was from a technical point of view – the fact that the operator could not come to the color correction, which was the biggest pain for me. The film’s release date has also been postponed.
At the moment, what worries me more is not the acceptance of the film itself by the public, but more whether the audience will not be afraid of the virus and go to the cinema.
Gints Grūbe: It already seems to me that people are longing to see new cinema, because everyone has lived with old films on different platforms for about half a year.
A few weeks ago, I received the new films from the European Film Academy, which were submitted for evaluation, and it was really a holiday to see that a new film was made this year as well.
So Reinis ‘film is definitely an event, because there have been no new films since Viesturs Kairiss’ film “City by the River”.
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Edgar, how are you feeling before the premiere?
Edgars Ozolins: Previously, when I was in Riga, this film was unexpectedly shown on Media Day – I wasn’t really ready for it, because Reinis was one of those directors who didn’t allow me to watch “play back” on the field, and I had seen exactly nothing from the film, except the trailer. It was quite interesting to watch … (..) I hope that in the premiere the excitement will be conditioned and the film will be able to be watched with a more objective eye.
Reini, question to you: what was the first impulse that made your debut film choose this particular story?
Reinis Kalvins: The first impulse came during his studies in Sarajevo – there was a difficult situation with taxi drivers, there were headlines about fights at the airport and the division of territories. I found the interesting atmosphere there – it seemed that the bubble of the nineties had survived.
I realized – yes, there might be enough material here to expand not a sharp movie, but something to that side. The idea stuck and I came back to it after a while.
How long did the script take?
Reinis Kalvins: It had a lot of versions, in the end there were already ten … I contacted Aldis Buks, we wrote the first version and then the second and third.
Edgar, how did you and Reina explore the role together?
Edgars Ozolins: The process was interesting –
Rein called me and stayed with him for two nights – we talked about the movie; he told me which movies he was inspired to watch, and then we had a little tour of the port and the airport –
we looked at how taxi drivers work. We met and talked to them, we were also exploring different places – gaming halls, for example. Because the film’s main character Marek has a bit of a problem with gambling. Rein told his idea, and it can be seen in the film.
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What do you think is what makes the viewer live with Marek?
Edgars Ozolins: Good question … Reinis has definitely seen the movie so many times that he is no longer objective, but I am not yet objective to judge. But watching, I really had the feeling that Marek is definitely not an evil image – he is the best of evils in this mess and is trying to get rid of the troubles that are washing him like a snowball.
The more the film picks up, the more problems there are.
Gint, maybe your opinion is more objective?
Gints Grūbe: When Reinis sent the first or second version of the screenplay, I still didn’t believe it – after all the historical films we wanted to shoot something modern, and I couldn’t really believe this story: it seemed to me that it was 1993, 1994.
And then, as a former journalist, I “got” the word “taxi wars.” Jumped 2018 – punctured tires in Old Riga. Jumped 2017 – beaten taxi driver.
So everything in the Rhine scenario is white truth. When we were already making the film, I realized that the line between the documentary and the feature film in the Rhine version is very close, because, for example,
calling a Riga airport employee, who is now in an even higher “china”, and saying that we have to film the situation of taxi wars at Riga airport, she understood it as going to a “Panorama” or “De facto” worthy scene.
There was no way I could tell her that this was a feature film – a fictional situation that we have a fake taxi and a fake hero. We went almost to the level of ministers, but in the end we didn’t achieve anything, because they thought that Reinis Kalviņš was shooting a “De facto” story …
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