Two Latvian films were awarded at the online ceremony of the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival (IDFA) – director Vitaly Manski’s film “Gorbachev. Paradise” received the award for best direction, but Avantis Promo’s co-production “Between Two Wars” won the main prize in the “First Appearance” competition .
According to Kristīne Matīsa, a representative of the National Film Center, the award ceremony of the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival, like most other festival events, was held online due to the pandemic.
Manski, the director of the film “Gorbachev. Paradise” produced by the Latvian studio “Vertov”, received the award for the best director in the main, full-length film competition of the festival. Matisa pointed out that “Gorbachev. Paradise” was one of the few films shown in a cinema in Amsterdam, but the film premiered at the festival in the hall of the cinema “Tuschinski” in the presence of only the director and 30 spectators.
According to a representative of the National Film Center, Manska’s film tells the story of a man whose changes changed the world. He was the architect of Transparency or Glasnost and Reconstruction or Perestroika, he demolished the Berlin Wall. However, Gorbachev kept the Chernobyl accident, suppressed protesters in Tbilisi and Baku. The Soviet empire collapsed during his reign, and the people themselves now condemn him for it. With the burden of past events on his shoulders, a lonely man spends his days in an empty house in the suburbs of Moscow.
“Gorbachev. Paradise” is a co-production of the studio “Vertov” and the Czech studio “Hypermarket Films”. The Latvian side of the creative team is represented by sound director Anrijs Krenbergs, composer Kārlis Auzāns, editing director Jevgēņijs Ribalko, director Manskis and producer Natālija Manska.
The film was made in collaboration with the television channels “Arte” and “Nastojasheje vremja” and Czech television. The film was financially supported by the National Film Center and the Czech Film Foundation.
Latvian viewers will have the opportunity to watch the film “Gorbachev. Paradise” at the international documentary film festival “Artdocfest / Riga”, which has been postponed to March 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ukrainian director Alina Gorlov’s feature film “Between Two Wars” or “This Rain Will Never Stop” received the main prize and 10,000 euros at the First Appearance competition for young directors at the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival. The film is a co-production of Ukraine, Latvia, Germany and Qatar, which a few days ago premiered in Italy at the Festival Dei Popoli, where it received the main prize and 8,000 euros as the best feature film.
Matīsa said that the team of the Latvian side of the film is the studio “Avantis Promo”, producer Ilona Bičevska, composer “Goran Gora”, script consultants Ivo Briedis, Atis Klimovičs and Bičevska.
The film’s producer, Bichevska, said the film began as a short film about the life of a Syrian youth in Ukraine, but in the production process, together with the main character, the filmmakers “were brought to the epicenter of a new war situation.” In four years, the short film has become an “epic of a war-torn family”, during which three wars were experienced and the search for peace and identity of a young person was followed.
“All this is revealed to the eyes of a young woman – a director – who nuances the subtle details of a person’s individual and collective emotions in the world of the 21st century, where war is still unable to calm down,” stressed the film’s producer.
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