Following the fates of three different generations of women in the director’s own family, the film tries to find out how the almost half a million Latvian Russian-speaking community lives now with the help of a personal and emotional story. The film tries to understand whether this family (and others like it) have managed to find their place in Latvian society during the 30 years of independence.
Stanislavs Tokalovs started filming four years ago with the desire to delve into the daily life and feelings of the Russian-speaking community of Latvia. After a long search for the characters of the film, the choice stopped with his own family, because it seemed to be the only way to tell this story honestly and personally.
The director’s grandmother is a World War II veteran who came to Latvia in 1955 in search of a better life, the main holiday in her life is May 9, when “Putin himself sends congratulatory telegrams”. Mother is a teacher of higher mathematics at a university, she has always given lectures in Russian, but now she has to learn to present these complex topics in Latvian and English. The youngest offspring of the family, the director’s sister Patrīsija, is an art student, she is the only one of the three heroines who has no problems with using the language and integrating into Latvian society.
The montage of the events depicted in the film is centered around the May 9 and New Year celebrations for four years. For many years, the grandmother has celebrated every May at the Victory Monument, but since the beginning of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has become more and more difficult, until finally the monument is torn down. Also, the anniversary celebrations are changing – in the past you could pour champagne into glasses twice, both after the address of the President of Russia and Latvia, now the TV shows only one New Year’s speech.
Director Stanislavs Tokalovs says: “Changes in the public consciousness, which would last at least another ten years, happened suddenly and rapidly within a few months. The war accelerated them incredibly. The polarization of society took place, the Latvian part became very united, the dismantling of the Victory Monument vividly testifies to this. And the question of Russian-speaking identity is becoming relevant, like everywhere else in Europe. I don’t know what will happen next. I can only look at the events that we managed to record, and this process revealed to me that the Russian-speaking population should focus on formulating their own identity. I really hope , that the film will allow to start a discussion about this very important issue for me.”
The film was made in a studio I mean with the support of the National Cinema Center, and producer Guntis Trekteris admits: “When we started this work four years ago, we wanted to study how the integration of non-nationals is going in Latvia. Of course, no one could have predicted what happened in the world a year ago, radically changing the situation. I think , that the division of our society has been promoted by the reluctance to think and delve into various processes, including integration issues, and our film is a good reason to start an in-depth conversation.”
The film will be shown at the Splendid Palace cinema in only three screenings – on March 18, 21 and 23. After the screening on March 18, a discussion is planned with journalist and screenwriter Rita Rudus, on March 21 – with publicist Daina İvan.
