Gints Grūbe

Lost in remotest part of Eastern Europe, Sam is a foreigner, searching for his biological father Lagzdins where a minor road accident leads to a chance meeting with a pig-farmer's daughter, who captures him and makes him a forced laborer on the farm.

Edith is a curiosity-driven journalist and single mother. Solo parenting proves to be complicated, but when the identity of the man who donated the sperm that got her pregnant surfaces, she seeks him out under the false pretext of interviewing him about his company.

Through six very different families, documentary “The Land” shows the variety of the countryside in the 21st century, the contradictions of countryside living as well as illusions about farmer’s life. There are various reasons why our protagonists chose to live in the homesteads, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Some were done with spending too much time in an office, traffic and living a virtual life, they wanted real, tangible things. Some have moved to countryside by their own choice, but some by predisposition of their families. But what unites them all - they aspire for the stability provided by their own land and house. Together with our protagonists, we will spend one year’s cycle of farmer’s life, that will start with the spring sowing and finish with the autumn harvest and land preparation for the next year.

Mareks (32) is a young taxi driver in Riga working hard to provide for his son. He is looking forward to spending the weekend with him when an envelope full of cash is stolen from his taxi. With a debt to repay to his short-tempered boss, Mareks needs to earn the money back fast. He drives to the airport and hotels in the hopes of getting some well-paying customers. However, the competition for clients is fierce. Mareks ignores the established rules and upsets the delicate balance between rival taxi companies. As the morning approaches getting the money seems to be the least of Mareks problems.

The film is based on true events, it tells the stories of two outstanding personalities of the 20th century – Sergei Eisenstein and Isaiah Berlin, who were both born and spent their childhood in Riga but soon had to leave the city. The film follows the lives of the two characters during the turbulent first half of the 20th century, telling how one of them becomes “the greatest film director of his generation” in the totalitarian Soviet Union, and the other “the greatest thinker of his generation” in liberal Great Britain.

This investigative documentary explores the methods through which Russia influences the domestic policy of the Baltic States – by dividing the local community, promoting nostalgia for the Soviet Union and dismissing the recovered independence of the Baltic States.

Five children started school in different parts of Latvia in 2015 and we followed them through their first schoolyear in the 2018 documentary “To be continued”. Now 14 years old, they are halfway to adulthood. Some have matured, some seem to be still lingering in childhood. Zane has traded her dream of a singing career for her passion for the basketball. Gleb fights in the boxing ring and puts his business talent to good use by selling rulers in class. Anastasia from Stoļerova in the Rezekne region rides horses and learns not to give up. Anete's mother has returned from England and they are now living in Riga and Anete now has a little brother. Kārlis, from Vidzeme, is still fascinated by tractors but now sows fields in a virtual computer game.

The 14th of June 1941, Soviet-occupied Latvia. Without warning, the authorities break into the house of Melanie and her husband Alexander, and force them to leave everything behind. Together with more than 15 000 Latvians, Melanie and her son get deported to Siberia. In her fight against cold, famine and cruelty, she only gains new strength through the letters she writes to Alexander, full of hope for a free Latvia and a better tomorrow.

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.

Līgatne river ferry crossing takes locals, tourists, passers-by and cars from early spring to the fall over river Gauja. It's the last of what were once many such 'rope ferries' across Gauja, but it remains more than an historical oddity and plays an important part in many lives. At just 12 square meters, the wooden ferry nevertheless encompasses an intriguing and sometimes surprising selection of what constitutes 21st-century Latvia.

The story of a generation's life and Latvian history, based on the autobiographical accounts of Latvian choral music legends, conductors Imants Kokars and Gidon Kokars, their view of the events of the past century, their personal biographies, and historical events in Latvia and around the world. The Kokars are both symbols of an era and people who, as public figures, have created an image of themselves that they themselves have willingly shaped or allowed others to shape. The film is a story about Imants and Gido Kokari at the age of 87, when their memories form a story about themselves and create a mirror image of the events and emotions of an entire era.

Twins Alba and Livia visit a mirror-themed art exhibit with their eccentric art historian grandfather. There, Alba discovers she can bring paintings to life and accidentally frees Janus, a chaos-bringing god trapped in a mirror of a painting. As Janus warps reality, their grandfather falls under his spell. The girls must journey through art and myth to save him, and the world.

It is 1991 in Latvia and nineteen-year-old aspiring cinematographer Jazis’s whole world is thrown into chaos as he is dragged into the people’s peaceful protests against the Soviet Army’s attempted takeover of power in his country.

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.

August 1942: Amidst the unimaginable suffering inflicted during the blockade of Leningrad by the German Wehrmacht, an orchestra director was given an almost impossible task: to stage the premiere of Dimitri Shostakovitch's "Leningrad Symphony". The performance became a symbol of the brief triumph of culture over the barbarism of war.

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.

In the minds of people, Brussels is no longer a geographical location; it is now a myth-surrounded centre, where decisions are made regarding future life in Europe. The most brilliant minds from the European countries have convened in Brussels: former state leaders, highly-placed officials, advisors, translators and interpreters, as well as family members of all these people. Together, they comprise a sort of separate planet ruled by special laws and using new methods of communication; it is a place of a high concentration of power and all sorts of creature comforts. The anxiety following the 2016 attacks on Brussels has taken everyone by surprise, and the question whether to stay on Planet Brussels now comes up increasingly often. The Brexit news gave completely different kind of concussion to the commonly established center of Europe.

Žanis Lipke, an ordinary blue-collar worker in Latvia, embarks on a covert operation. Despite his family’s hardship under successive Soviet and German occupations, Lipke tries to save local Jews from Nazi persecution and certain death, moving them from the Riga ghetto to an underground bunker hidden on his property.

Trying to make a professional impression, the teacher of the 9th grade Dārta organises a parents' school meeting, but the parents' childish behaviour turns the gathering into a disaster, becoming the biggest challenge of Dārta's career so far. The new teacher prepares for the meeting, while the parents arrive late - so does the businessman Jānis, the president of the parent's school council Žanete arrives with flowers and a gift; the spouses of an open marriage Valts and Laine playing "truth or dare", while the recently divorced Maija and Raivo exchange barbs. The planning of the children's graduation turns into an absurd escalation of conflicts between the parents.

15 August 1990. Viktor Tsoy, the Soviet Union’s most famous rock star, leader of the band Kino, a symbol of freedom and change, dies in an accident on a Latvian highway. The bus driver who was involved in the tragic accident will bring his body back to Leningrad. A party of mourners – Tsoy’s wife and her new boyfriend, his mistress, his producer, his young son and an obsessed photographer – are part of the trip back. This is going to be a long trip, the perfect occasion for an agonizing unravelling of love, jealousy, ambition, and greed.

At 22, Kristaps still lives with his father, and their relationship is far from perfect. Every conversation turns into an argument because both men refuse to be open - Kristaps does not talk about his homosexuality, his father about his new relationship and how he appreciates his son's presence. The impetus to change comes when Kristaps meets his boss, Marek, who in Kristaps' eyes symbolises freedom.

A story of the journey to success of a young sportswoman who, with the support of her family and great determination, has already become the best Latvian skier of all time and is gradually moving towards her goal - to be among the best cross-country skiers in the world. The film documents the gruelling training, tough competition, sweat, tears and responsibility to her loving family. The film is about a woman who wants to reach the top and is willing to pay the ultimate price by dedicating her youth to the sports.

Since Latvia regained independence in 1991, only a small number of all those who emigrated during the 1940s returned, though many of them had been waiting for the occupation to end. This is about the first generation of Latvian émigrés - those who came back, and those who chose to stay in the West.

A miniseries about the events during one summer in a family of a writer who are unexpectedly granted a remote estate with all its unusual inhabitants, and who has to decide what to do with the dilapidated estate. Exciting and comic events in eight episodes in which the future writer Anšlavs Eglītis together with his brother Vidvuds, father Viktors and his wife Hilda Vīka, begin the restoration of the estate, at the same time opening a boarding house, which becomes the intersection and summer stage of the neighbourhood, ghosts of the past, visitors from the city and Latvian intellectuals in Latvia in the 1920s.

A story about Emīlija Benjamiņa, the “queen of the press” in interwar Latvia, whose wealth and tragic fate have since become folklore. The film’s narrative covers the period from the beginnings of Emīlija’s magazine Atpūta (Recreation), to her arrest and slow demise in a train en route to Siberia. The most prominent clairvoyant of the time - Eugene Fink’s prophecy that Emīlija would die from starvation in a foreign land (which served to be true) weaves through the narrative as a red thread. With this strong woman at the centre of the story, the film shows Latvian society in all its richness and gives the audience the opportunity to meet many well-known historical figures.

Adam, a man from the capital, lands a job in a postal office of a quiet town. His boss, Anita, a small-town Marilyn Monroe, has two concerns - a lack of romantic partner, and a battle with a rival postal office nearby, as one of them will be closed. Adam becomes enchanted by a woman who works at a nearby cafe, while her colonel father is too shy to express his feelings towards Anita and writes anonymous love letters instead...