Best Latvian documentary movies

A documentary detective film about the construction of a 870 kilometres long highspeed railway line that started with a dream to connect the Baltic States to rest of the Europe when in 1991 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania regained their independence from Soviet Union. Filmmaker Kārlis Lesiņš becomes a ‘citizen-investigator’ and goes on the road to find out why after 30 years and with only few years before the intended launch of the Rail Baltica railway line, the construction of this EU-funded project is significantly behind the schedule, over the budget and may never be finished at all. Kārlis follows the trail of Rail Baltica project, trying to get the answers - what has happened and what is happening? Traveling through all the involved countries, he meets officials, military personnel, investigative journalists, people whose land will be expropriated, employees implementing the project and potentially benefiting entrepreneurs, who open up to him with their versions of the story.

Some people collect family albums. Sarmīte Sīle, an accomplished arts scholar, takes a nude photo of herself every ten years. Behind this unique series of nude photos that span a lifetime, is her story.

The existence of two parallel communities – one Latvian, the other Russian, is the reality of present day Latvia. After the establishment of an independent Latvian Republic in 1991, the Russian speaking community began to see themselves as a threatened minority and started to depict themselves as oppressed. Where does the truth lie? Are there victims? Or is it simply that the idea of integration, for both sides, does not work properly?

Spring 2021. A cinephile invites you on an intimate trip through the last surviving cinema houses in Latvia. This documentary essay, shot on super 8mm, opens the locked doors to picture houses during a Covid-19 lockdown, perhaps the most difficult time in the history of physical cinema space.

Ilze Burkovska, a little girl who is obsessed with stories of World War II and will be a filmmaker in a distant future, lives in Latvia under the totalitarian boot of the Soviets and the ominous shadow of the many menaces and horrors of the Cold War.

The 1960s brought hope for the huge Soviet empire - a hope that the regime will become more humane. The optimism and youthful energy of the decade became the prevailing mood. Renewal of life vibrated in Latvia. The newly built Riga Film Studio was a strong impulse to the development of national cinematic art. A new generation full of energy came into the Latvian film industry; they created a style of documentary cinema that we now call Riga poetic documentary cinema (or Riga style).

Biographical story about a 23 year old guy who is a heroin addict, and how it's ruining his life.

A documentary about the well-known Latvian youth choir “Kamēr...” and its journey to the Tolosa Choral competition. A debut from a 20 year old singer of the choir, the film offers a deeply personal insight into the most difficult challenge the choir has ever faced. After the head conductor leaving, the choir has just 2 months to get used to a new leader. A test for the new conductor who has to prove his worth at one of the most important competi-tions of the choir’s history. It’s do or die, as nothing less than a victory will be accepted. Following the choir every step of the way, the director puts the audience in a first-row seat at rehearsals, performances, discussions and spectacular moments that can only be seen through the eyes of a singer. An unprecedented view of the personal battles and achieve-ments, that lead up to a real-life story, never captured before.

There are places that we don’t want to know anything about, places that we would rather pretend don’t exist at all. One such place is a dumpsite. From the humans’ point of view, it is a ghastly place, a stinking desert of trash. But it’s a desert that is teaming with life.

A documentary film revealing the incredible and unique journey of the Latvia-born adventurer and Olympic biathlete Raimonds Dombrovskis back in 1988 as he roller-skis 4,200 miles (6,759 km) from Inuvik (The Arctic, Canada) to Baja (Mexico) in 90 days. He uses his rollerski trip as a way to protest against the Soviet regime and to explain to everyone he meets that somewhere on the map there is a small nation that has its own language and craves freedom.

Through the prism of three distinct characters, the 24-year-old director conveys an intimate and sensitive portrait of his own generation, wanderers looking for their place in the new and uncertain world. Dancer Tanya moves to Mississippi where she finds love with a paraplegic wheelchair basketball trainer who is more than 20 years her senior. App developer Tomass abandons the life he had before and becomes a world-travelling digital nomad. Avant-garde publisher Valters collects toilet seats in a poetically performative attempt to overcome past trauma.

Through following the twists and turns of three generations of women in the Russian-speaking Latvian film director’s family, the film attempts to look at the reality of the half-million community of Russians in the Baltic countries in 2020. Through the story of a grandmother – a veteran of the Second World War who came to Latvia in 1955 in search of a better life, a mother – a lecturer in a closing down Transport and Telecommunication Institute , and an eighteen-year-old daughter – an artist, a student of the prestigious Latvian Art School. The film tries to understand whether this family managed to find its place in the new society after 30 years of Latvian Independence.

Self-made banker Boriss Osipovs achieves quick success immediately after the collapse of the USSR, but he flees Latvia to avoid arrest for illegal operations. Fifteen years later, his family receives a photograph from Interpol of an elderly gentleman with the same name who resides in a Malaysian mental asylum. Could it be him? Despite the reservations of her family, Osipovs’ daughter, documentary director Ieva Ozoliņa, starts an investigation to find out the truth about the man in the photograph. An emotional story about a man who loses himself in times of change...and the daughter who hopes to find him.

A former actor is fascinated by an idea. He meets a scientist, a speech therapist, and a juggler, and convinces them to stage Endgame by Samuel Beckett. They believe that Beckett’s play about four people trapped in a world that is about to collapse describes the situation in which they find themselves in.

DocuDrama about 13th century pre-Christian culture. Danish spy Lars enters the tribal lands of the Baltic peoples, where he takes part in religious rites, cruel forays, gets high during the Summer Solstice, becomes slave to the Couronians and even fights the crusaders. Who were the last pagans of Europe and how did they live? It is a unique trip into the textures of the past and into the unknown lands of the Baltic Tribes.

In 2004, a successful banker known as "Mr. Dice" mysteriously disappeared off the face off the earth, along with millions of dollars from investors and friends alike. Desperate to find answers, his best friend Kaspars Roga embarks upon a journey, ultimately leading into the heart of Africa where Mr Dice has reinvented himself… this time as the owner of the diamond mine, begging the question - were they ever really friends? Or was he a pawn in Dice's greater scheme?

The To Be Continued documentary follows lives of five children throughout their first school year. Kārlis's family is firmly rooted in the Latvian countryside. Gleb's grandparents came to Latvia only in the Soviet period. Zane's family are first-generation urban-dwellers. Anastasija's family moved from the city to the countryside. Anete's mum lives and works in England. The film explores how these choices made by adults are reflected in a child's thinking.

Valentina lives in an isolated mental health institution in Latvia. This documentary gives us a brief glimpse into her life there: We explore her relationships with her brother, husband and closest friend, who live there too. The focus remains on those relationships in order to present the viewer the simple understanding that we are all fundamentally human - We all share the same moments of grief, joy, sadness and love. Underpinning this lies the deeper socio-cultural issue of mental health. This is not a film about 'crazy' people - It is a film about people and humanity.

The film is a sequel of the legendary documentary “Is It Easy To Be Young?”, which was created in the year 1986 by Juris Podnieks. You once again meet the heroes from the first film. How their lives have changed, have their dreams fulfilled? The film received prize in Leipzig film festival, FIPRESSI prize, nominated for Prix Europa.

As a young Soviet student in 1978, Ieva could not have predicted that a holiday visit to her father, Imants Lesinskis, then working in the Soviet mission at the United Nations in New York City, would irreversibly split her life in two. Entangled in a dark spy game, Ieva is forced to leave her former life behind, never to see her mother or her homeland of Latvia again. Pulling back the curtain on the shady behind-the-scenes world of the Cold War, this film tells a daughter's dramatic story of her double-agent father, exploring their relationship against the backdrop of events which have their roots over four decades ago. In order to find herself and understand the game she was part of, Ieva sets out on a journey to the past, confronting family secrets, lies and betrayal.

'Family Instinct' is a film about incest - an illegal act, social taboo and a violation of religious norms. Zanda is a 28-year-old woman, worn out by hard work. Surrounded by poverty and despair, she is trying to survive with her two children in a god-forsaken Latvian village. Her hardships can be traced back to living in a relationship with her brother Valdis. When Valdis is put in jail, the local community forces her to make a difficult choice: to stay with him or with her children. Despite her ill fortune, she manages to express her love for the children, still hoping to save her family. The film offers a tragicomic but highly authentic insight into the bleak reality of post-soviet era.

Raimonds Pauls is almost 85 years old, rehearses almost every day and performs at least once a week. What drives him? Not only he is the most popular composer in Latvia: his songs are sung all over the world. "Dāvāja Māriņa" is so popular in Japan that Paul received the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun. In concerts, he collaborates with world stars of Latvian origin - soprano Elīna Garanča, organist Iveta Apkalna, conductor Mariss Jansons. The Latvian Television film crew follows him during the pandemic, realizing that the restrictions and threats of Covid-19 hardly stop the Maestro in the course of his eternal engine. How does he cope with the challenges that time imposes on a person's physical form and the loneliness when most friends have passed away? What is the source of his inexhaustible lifestyle and creative spirit?

This is the 3rd film in almost 30 years about the daily lives of the people living in this small street of Pārdaugava. We first met them in the late 1980s when the Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse. We visited them again in the wild 1990s. And now we meet them in 2013, again in a whole different world.

Inta is a brusque, crusty woman who lives alone on the edge of a picturesque marsh. One day her solitude is intruded upon by the arrival of a documentary filmmaker. In his eyes Inta is an outstanding would-be film protagonist but the wild woman would rather put a curse on the importunate intruder than let herself be filmed. But the filmmaker's persistence finally succeeds in melting the ice of Inta's heart... just in order to break it soon afterwards.

What does it mean for a woman to take up the role of mother? The film follows four Latvian women during different stages of pregnancy. An ambitious dancer has to put her career on hold while being pregnant. A housewife expects her second child and fears postpartum depression recurring. An urban party girl becomes pregnant, decides to get married and move to the countryside to build a new home from scratch. A young entrepreneur and ex-punk welcomes her first child yet is haunted by the traumatic events from her past. All four women offer a unique insider point of view of pregnancy, as part of the footage is shot by the protagonists themselves. They go through a mix of emotions, highlighting that pregnancy, contrary to mainstream representation, is not only about the child - it is about the mother, too.

“Under the Upturned Moon” is a documentary that tells an outstandingly gripping story of two journalists investigating the depths of Islamic community in a country as small and seemingly insignificant as Latvia.

In 1986, Juris Podnieks made his film "Is it easy to be young?". The film became extremely popular and very soon was shown in 85 countries, which was a tremendous success for a Latvian film. It was even regarded as "the first bird of Perestroika". In 1998 the follow up film was made. It was extremely interesting to find out how the new economic system after the fall of the Soviet regime in Latvia had changed the lives of the persons filmed 10 years ago. "Is it easy to be...? After 10 years" also got an international recognition. The question 20 years later was- does anything change in this world or perhaps there are things that never change?! What has become of these brave youngsters who had once helped to destroy the Soviet system and who are now the generation of forty?

A story of a Latvian family making tentative plans to return to Latvia. Ģirts, a doctor working in Denmark for nine years, receives an invitation to set up a professional practice back in Latvia – a welcome opportunity, as he would like to look after his parents better. But things aren't as simple as that, and his family is divided over the issue.

Two men in post-communist Latvia go around preaching Gods word and get involved into all kind of encounters. Erik is a super-pious moralist. But Daniel is a super-consumerist who preaches the gospel of wealth. Their arguments and battles are laugh-out-loud funny as they attempt to convert the heathen (who smile and look on in pure amusement).

“One Of Us” follows Latvia-born athletes – wrestler Anastasija Grigorjeva, veteran gymnast Igors Vihrovs, and up-and-coming figure skater Deniss Vasiļjevs. Being of non-Latvian ethnicity, they are sometimes treated as ‘others’ by native Latvians, who welcome them into their ranks only when they’ve shown astonishing results.

“Lustrum” was one of the state administration principles of the Roman Empire – a five-year period after which public administrators underwent a purification and repentance process that was usually accompanied by a sacrifice. During this time, the representatives of the previous administration confessed all their sins, repented and genuinely swore allegiance to the new administration. The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia has made a decision to open the KGB archives in May 2018. The film is an endeavour to answer the question of whether the lustration that never took place in the 1990s may turn out to be dangerous for the future existence of statehood.

Ten years have passed since we made the film “Crossroad Street”, about a small street in the suburbs of the city of Riga. Now we’ve come back. Perhaps it was a sense of duty, perhaps nostalgia that brought us back – who knows? Perhaps it was both. Daiga, Aldis, Osis – they’re all our people. The first film had an impact on both the filmmakers and the residents of Crossroad Street. We found friends whom we want to meet again and again. Society has become more prosperous, several value systems coexist side-by-side. People often live in these systems as though they were in different worlds that never meet. We felt that the world inhabited by our people is sinking into oblivion, and so we wanted to show that it still has its own turbulence, that Crossroad Street resembles Latvia’s palm – the place where a fortune teller can see the lines of its destiny.

In a Latvian bakery, Aina breaks 40000 eggs per day by hand, and she has done this monotone job for almost 20 years.

The morning begins when the mail is delivered - this has been a tradition for almost an eternity. This film looks at daily things, daily movements, daily life and the daily routines of the postman, which are nevertheless meaningful to those who await and receive newspapers and letters.

The ferry crosses the river, transporting people from one shore to the other, from one country to another. It runs year round, never stopping. The footage was filmed on the Latvian-Belarussian border in the early 1990s - a time when the Soviet Union began to crumble and Latvia regained its independence.

A dreamer by nature, Quanqi Zhu decides to set up a unique installation at the hillside of Sacred Songshan mountain in China. Despite the language barrier, his best companion is Latvian architect Austris Mailitis. As the building of the object begins, the creators themselves have to levitate between cultural differences, conventions and personal ambitions.

Joyful, humorous and slightly ironic look on the daily life in Soviet Latvia in 1987.

A poetic documentary observation of everyday life in a Latvian fishing village, where centuries-old traditions and wind-hardened men and women live alongside the optimism of new construction and the smiling faces of the new generation.

Some of the most iconic images in Latvian visual history were taken 30 years ago, when the so-called Singing Revolution took place. This documentary that includes well-known and previously unseen 35 mm footage, is about those who took these shots, told in their own voices, their own emotions and memories.

A film about a plastic spoon and a society that has reached a high level of development – oil is being retrieved from subterranean depths, transported to processing plants, turned into plastic, transported to another plant, where it acquires the shape of a spoon, transported to convenience stores, where we buy it, and is then soon tossed into the trash. In other words, this is a film about the efforts put into making a spoon that can be thrown away so effortlessly.

A portrait of two megacities - Los Angeles and Moscow, as if seen by an alien who is sent to planet Earth to do a field work on the human presence.

The film begins with closing of the oldest prison in Latvia – the Brasa Prison was built in 1905 and cannot ensure normal functioning. Inmates are leaving the place that has long been their only home. Our protagonists reside in Ward 207. They have really inhabited it – there is even a fish tank in the ward! They are not from a different planet. Humanity of the inmates may contrast with their records of committed crimes. All have their small pleasures and big plans. All are longing for changes and being afraid of them. Likewise, the term of imprisonment is running out for several of our protagonists. They are getting ready for life at large. They know how to survive in extreme circumstances but are unprepared for living a normal life. One’s return to the big world is one of the most accentuated marginal situations.

In the past, many people, including my grandparents, recorded the most significant events in various calendars or notebooks. The nicest thing is that in such notes, people did not touchingly divide events by scale or, as they would say now, globality. Our film about the Skrunda radar (Skrunda radio location station) reminds us of such records. It is a story about a long, patient process of negotiations and agreements in order to achieve the closing and blowing up of the Skrunda monster. It is a film about people who participated in this work, regardless of position or social status.

Aivars Freimanis' documentary consisting of small episodes from a trip to Kurzeme.

At a time when Soviet ideologists dictated the musical taste of Soviet people, Juris Lapinskis offered an alternative. Since the 1960s, he has shared and distributed a wide variety of Western music. Music shared by Lapinskis reached people both in Latvia and Russia. And maybe thanks to him, in the 60s and 70s, Western music idols can add thousands of former Soviet citizens to their supporters. Lapinskis himself was imprisoned and repaired. At that time there was something more than music in these tape rollers, a little more on the other side of the iron curtain - a little more air and a little more freedom.

An artist. A painter. The enfant terrible of the old Soviet and now post-communist 'petit bourgeois' society. A mother of three, no husband, and every child from a different father. The children's ages range from 4 to 20 years. The artist herself is 43 at this time. A happy and free person at all times under any regime. A young, beautiful, photogenic being. Temperamental, garrulous and witty.

It is what it is. One needs a reason to get a passer-by to stop in their tracks and stand in front of the camera for a while. In this case the reason was - Mozart.

World War II separated the Latvian nation into two parts. Fleeing Soviet occupation, a large part of the people left their homeland by the Baltic Sea and sought refuge in the West. New York’s Hell’s Kitchen district became their home and the core of Latvian cultural exiles became young poets and artists. The film traces across half a century to show their life today and what has happened to those young writers and poets (the Troubadour – Gunars Silins, the Internal Dissident – Janis Kreslins, Philosopher the Dionisios – Robert Muks, the Estranged One – Rita Gale, the Observer – Aina Kraujiete, the Outsider – Dzintars Sodums) in their effort to combine the trends of global culture with their ethnic identity, when two cultures, Latvian and American, intersected.

On June 14, 1941, more than 15,000 Latvian inhabitants, including approximately 4,000 children of Latvian, Jewish, Polish and Russian ethnicity were deported to Siberia. During this period of deportation by the Soviet invaders, the men were separated from their families and sent to the Gulag. Some were sentenced to the highest punishment, death, and the rest were kept in labor camps. The women and children were sent to the remote Krasnoyarsk and Tomsk districts. The first two years were the most difficult and many perished from the harsh conditions. Today some 400 of those deported children still live in Latvia and Siberia. This documentary describes the fate of these children.

A story about the significance of Goethe’s Faust in the development of Latvian literature, language, publishing, culture and theatre. The video highlights the intersection of world cultures and their mutual development, as well as the courage of the people to break the boundaries of stereotypic attitudes.

To be a harp player or a proffesional guard-for-hire? A young musician, at the very beginnig of his professional career. As many creative-minded young people in Latvia, he faces a dilemma: to devote his life to art or to change his profession and live a financially more guaranteed life. Young harp-player’s story and his creative road in the pragmatic world of today.

Every spring the surroundings of the Lake Lubāns, the largest lake in Latvia, are in flood. The efforts to prevent the floods have been going on since the middle of the 19th century. Today the lake, encircled by dikes, no longer threatens the surrounding homesteads but the seeming safety has been bought for a very high price – destruction of the natural balance. Can the damage be remedied? Two Latvians will travel to the wetlands of Japan in search for a possible solution.

A documentary about the creative process of Latvian artist Ilmārs Blumbergs, also featuring poet Imants Tilbergs who is trying to write one and the same book all his life.

Latvian painter Boriss Bērziņš talks about life and art in his workshop. A documentary that was awarded "Lielais Kristaps" for best debut.

In the mill between two superpowers – Russian and German – they were just a pebble. Unexpectedly – a tough pebble to crush… The film is a neutral view on the still controversial historical phenomenon of the Latvian legion within the German army during the World War II.

“As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relationships with this best and truest friend of mankind that death's image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling” - thus said Mozart about death. Mozart died in 1791 and was buried in a mass grave, as standard at the time in Vienna for a person of his social and financial situation. In 2000, 452 of Riga’s deceased — people without relatives, the homeless and the unidentified — were buried at the Jaunciems cemetery. But this film is not about death: it's about Mozart, The Magic Flute, Riga, and love. A short commissioned for the Latvian exhibition at Venice Biennale.

A story about the Livonian (Liv) language going extinct, and about the people still trying to keep it alive.

A story of Augšbebri (Bobrovka) village in Siberia, set up by Latvians at the end of 19th century.