Milda Klētniece

Oskars lives in a typical sea-side village, but wants to break free of his father’s rule and the old ways – he dreams of new, large nets, an ice-cellar, and the fishermen’s independence from the fish wholesaler. At first, no one wants to believe in Oskars’ plans, except for happy-go-lucky Fredis. With the help of Fredis, Oskars builds a new fish trap, gaining admiration from even the old fishermen.

In 1802, growing anger among Latvian peasants erupts after changes in taxation, placing an even heavier burden on the peasant population. After a series of meetings, the peasants resolve to use force to free those already arrested. Thousands armed with clubs and scythes rise up, but are driven back by troops and retreat into a nearby forest. As reinforcements arrive, mass arrests and brutal reprisals follow, and the courts sentence some of the rebels to lifelong exile in Siberia.

The first film in a duology based on the biography of Latvian revolutionary Jānis Fabricius. Mārtiņš Venta, the son of a forest ranger, enrolls in a Riga gymnasium and becomes an underground activist, while his classmate, Dace, a teacher's daughter, is expelled from the Riga school for singing the revolutionary song Kā gulbji balti padebeši iet. Dace becomes an actress, but Mārtiņš is drafted into the tsar's army. He refuses to participate in the shooting of a workers' demonstration and is sentenced to exile, but before his deportation, Mārtiņš is allowed to marry Dace in prison.