Valdis Muktupāvels

A story about a boy's attempt to get his own hat. Based on the book and drawings of Latvian author Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš.

Jānis was an actor – respected and in demand. Dina came to the Liepāja Theatre to become an actress. In the summer of 1992, Jānis fell off the roof of his house, broke his back and was partially paralysed. The doctors promised things would get better but they didn’t. They now live in a harsh reality which seems unbearable.

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.

The motives of Latvian folk songs are based on a romantic message about human life. A bird, a human child, a fish and clouds – these are the images of the film, which are created and illuminated by the eternal sun. There is also the fiery Fox and The Wolf encountered in winter, also the little flying animal from the depths of the past. All of them live, rush, strive and yearn for the endless variations of being. One circle of The Sun, one life, moment and eternity here and there, in the mystical world "beyond nine lakes".