Discover the best of Latvian cinema, film, and television
Discover the definitive list of popular and critically-acclaimed movies and TV shows from Latvia. Find your next binge-watch, streaming on Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Prime Video, and other top services!
The cinema of Latvia
Latvian cinema is a world of quiet contemplation and deep poetic soul, a film culture where reality is observed with an artist’s eye. Its international reputation was forged by the legendary 'Riga School of Poetic Documentary'. In the 1960s, these filmmakers created a new kind of truth telling, and the movement reached its peak with Juris Podnieks's groundbreaking film Is It Easy to Be Young?. This powerful documentary captured the restless spirit of a generation and resonated across the world. This tradition of world class animation and documentary filmmaking continues to be a central part of its artistic identity. In the modern era, visionary directors like Laila Pakalniņa are celebrated at top festivals for their unique films, which often beautifully blur the line between documentary and fiction with a signature, wry wit. This creative energy also fuels a vibrant domestic television scene, with popular and ambitious historical dramas like Sarkanais mežs (Red Forest) captivating the nation. What makes Latvian cinema so remarkable is this deep respect for reality, transformed through a unique, lyrical lens. It’s a cinema of quiet observation, finding profound beauty and surprising humour in the truth.
Best Latvian series
Soviet Jeans 2024
In the late 1970s – at a time when the fiercest propaganda against Western culture was being waged throughout the USSR – an ardent rock and roll fan sets up a successful and illegal underground jeans factory in a Latvian psychiatric hospital.
71Lost Without Trace 2020
Anna and Victoria left their homes at 8 a.m. And never came back. An investigator from Saint Petersburg arrived to a small Latvian town in an attempt to find the connection between the two missing women.
100Red Forest 2019
A drama about the national resistance movement in Latvia after the Soviet occupation. Events take place in 1949 when the British intelligence service MI6 tries to find out about the situation in the Baltic States occupied by the Soviet Union. Wittold (Jekabs Reinis), together with other Latvians, works hard in his daily work, and Velta (Agnese Cirule) is a nurse. They dream of going to the United States, saving money, planning a wedding and arranging the necessary documents because the US carefully selects emigrants. But Wittold decides to take part in the Mission, and the hope of changing history changes his life.
80The Uninvited Guests 2023
Walter Peterson, a well-known small-town actor, was found dead after the party in a remote guest house. Due to the fact that no one is willing to talk about what really happened on the night of the birthday, two investigators from different generations are assigned to the case and discover that all of the witnesses were lying.
56Anna no Zaļkalniem 2022
Farmers Maria and Martin wish to adopt a boy from an orphanage and are surprised to receive Anna sent by mistake. Anna quickly wins the heart of Martin but is disapproved of by stern Maria at first.
48Agency 2020
A Latvian series shot by the team at Jaunais Rīgas Teātris / New Riga Theatre over the course of summer 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. It's a story about a world that once again changes rapidly. About the belief that everything on this planet is subject to manipulation. The series centers around an advertising agency - a classic office where professionalism mixes with boredom, romance and an existential tiredness.
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Best Latvian movies
Flow 2024
A solitary cat, displaced by a great flood, finds refuge on a boat with various species and must navigate the challenges of adapting to a transformed world together.
79The Rifleman 2019
The love story of sixteen-year-old Arturs is interrupted by the First World War. After losing his mother and his home, he finds some consolation in joining the army, because this is the first time national battalions are allowed in the Russian Empire. But war is nothing like Arturs imagined – no glory, no fairness. It is brutal and painful. Arturs is now completely alone as war takes the lives of his father and brother. Also, no progress is made in the promised quick resolution of the war and timely return home. Within the notion that only he alone cares about returning home and that his homeland is just a playground for other nations, Arturs finds strength for the final battle and eventually returns home to start everything from scratch, just like his newly born country.
69The Pagan King 2018
On his deathbed, the reigning king bestows power to an unexpected heir who must find strength within himself to unite his people against the violent crusades which threaten their freedom.
63Away 2019
After suffering a plane crash on a mysterious island, a young man embarks on an epic journey through forests, deserts and mountains trying to escape the shadow of a huge dark spirit.
63Oasis 2017
A boy is afraid to leave his oasis because of the spirit waiting for him outside.
62Duna 2018
A young woman gets flashbacks from her previous lives - flashbacks of how she died. Is her fate doomed to repeat itself again?
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