Anrijs Krenbergs

Over the course of one year, this film follows the life of an ordinary Pyongyang family whose daughter was chosen to take part in Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong-il's birthday) celebration. While North Korean government wanted a propaganda film, the director kept on filming between the scripted scenes. The ritualized explosions of color and joy contrast sharply with pale everyday reality, which is not particularly terrible, but rather quite surreal.

Young police detective Romāns Skulte joins the Riga Central Precinct in the mid-1990s. In no time at all, Skulte’s youthful enthusiasm clashes with the harsh reality of the streets, leading him to the realisation that in order to purge the city of crime, ethical and legal boundaries must be breached.

Russian Federation, December 31, 1999. After President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of the country. From that day and for a year, Vitaly Mansky's camera documented Putin's rise to power. The story of a privileged witness. The harsh explanation of the reason why politics is the art of possibility of achieving the best with the support of many, but also of giving the worst in return.

As soon as I finished my first marathon, I wanted to become a tripod in order to make a film about it. That is because words are certainly not the right instruments to tell us what it’s like to run a marathon. I think we can try to show it through the characters, noises, texts, lights, the absolute physical understanding of shadows and of the sun, the water, the motions and the serenity. For those who do not practice running in marathons because they don’t want to or because they can’t, I wish to bring something from inside the marathon, out; for example, for my Mum, whose legs ache. I am acting like a spy sent into the marathon.

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

The film is an emotional story about fateful historical events in the 20th century, which took place in three Baltic countries- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The story is also about their efforts to regain independence.

An absurdist farce centering around a school in post-Soviet Latvia. After a rather disgusting prank (someone defecates in the school attic), the tyrannical headmistress deems that no one can leave until the culprit is caught. When the photographer's pet python escapes, havok breaks loose.

Children, sitting around the table, are engaged in "adult" conversations.

It is a sunny morning at the forest pond in the animal village. The idyllic forest scene is disturbed by an unusual noise—a strange car suddenly drives into the forest. A family of domestic pigs has arrived to spend their vacation in the countryside. The forest piglet sees a beautiful piglet girl and romantic feelings awaken in him, but the girl's bourgeois parents put obstacles in the way of their friendship. The pig family's bad habits encourage the animals to teach them a lesson, and the offended wild boar takes the lead.

This is the second film based on themes from Margarita Stāraste’s fairy-tales. Rosie is a red colouring pencil, who, together with the other pencils, colours in the author’s story as it progresses. Their work continues until the moment they are interrupted by the appearance of an uninvited fly. Chasing the fly, Rosie ends up with in the land of dew drops, grassmen, meadow maidens, and other forest creatures. He has stepped into a fairy-tale. There, Rosie enthusiastically helps out with jobs in the forest; however, in the meantime, the story has become a bit unusual without the colour red...

MONA is a modern and thrilling drama with erotic and fantasy elements. In a rural area where a slaughterhouse is the only industry lives a mysterious nature child Mona. The dull routine of villagers is broken by a city businessman Thomas who comes there for his uncle’s funeral and to sell the inherited estate. Meeting Mona throws Thomas in a dangerous maelstrom of illusions, passion and obsession.

There is a huge uproar in the forest: Beaver’s teeth have been stolen. Detective Owl and his assistant Piglet are to investigate this mysterious crime. Several forest inhabitants appear to be possible suspects, but the guilty one is not so easily discovered.

A simple but sweet story about a family of mushroom flies who try to keep "their" mushroom from ending up in a hunter's basket by using techniques such as repainting it, covering it with moss, and other tricks.

An elderly man has arrived in Greece, Halkidiki. While fishing on his boat, he pulls out an old amphora, but its bottom breaks off and falls back into the sea. The old man calls the “Rescue team” for a help. Three “Rescue team” men arrive with their ship and put on scuba diver equipment, then go deep into the sea to find the lost property...

No one knows how it happened, but not long ago a Latvian bear arrived on the Estonian island of Ruhnu. The islanders were really afraid. At first they tried to catch the bear, but were only able to find his footprints. Later they invited a professional hunter from Finland with a special bear dog. Still no success...

A story about a little piglet who prefers sweet, lazy sleep over engaging in any housework. He gets offended when his friends ask for help. Chatty magpie tells the little piglet of rich and generous relatives in the forest. Piglet believes the magpie and goes into the forest for the promised better life. But the dream turns into illusion and Piglet’s trip turns into a dangerous affair.

Adam’s first wife Lilith is mentioned in the ancient Oriental legends, in Talmud and in the medieval books of Cabala. According to these sources, she was not created from Adam's rib like Eve but from clay like he himself. Nevertheless Lilith was not recognised by Adam as his equal and left him after a quarrel heading for Babylon. She has no soul, and she is immortal. Lilith assumes different names, can change her appearance, and takes possession of men against their will. Once it's accomplished, she leaves her victims forever, marking them for either spiritual, or physical death. Whatever she does it is neither Good nor Evil. She is made of an altogether different matter. Inspired by the works of French writer Anatole France, Yevgeny Pashkevich‘s GULF STREAM UNDER THE ICEBERG consists of three dramatically interwoven stories with the immortal Lilith stalking through time and space with her demonic mission.

Folded, rewritten, thrown away, wrinkled, crossed out, stuffed in a pocket, handed to the book keeper, only to find out later that it was the wrong one; then written down, torn out, worn out, sometimes crumpled up, with morning coffee stains. The film’s protagonist walks around the pulp mill with jagged movements, performing his duties. “I doubt we’ll meet again. I really do,” he repeats to himself, addressing the void.

A philosophical study and personal myth of creation of a woman and her two ways to encounter a man. Screened both at Woodstock and KROK, the film captivates viewers with the elusive and not wholly understandable inner world of a woman.

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?

Sometimes even those who are used to crawling, get to fly.

Closing day of the season in the boarding house at the Vietinghoff Palace in the province of Latvia. Here the material world and atmosphere of the 1930s are reconstructed as fully as possible. According to the rules of the institution, guests must abandon all their means of digital communications. And this is what they are looking for: to disappear, at least for a while, and become inaccessible to the outside world. The lingering summer heat drags the guests into an insane frenzy where surrealistic and grotesque situations build up an ambiguous comedy.

A film about everything changing while remaining the same. Or rather – everything remaining the same while changing. We observed this (and wanted to share) while standing (standing regularly and for a long time) on a road rather close to the Eastern border of Latvia, because we followed the suggestion of the locals who asked to shoot “that horrible road”.