My Family Tree

My Family Tree

2013 · 74 min · Drama, Family, History

A unique, engaging film that combines documentary footage with narrative cinema to tell the story of four generations of a Latvian family. Sixteen year-old student Jānis has been given an interesting homework assignment – to draw his family tree and explain it. The story of his family begins with his great-great-grandfather who burned down the manors of German landowners during the 1905 revolution. My Family Tree takes us on a journey to various countries and political regimes, showing Jānis’ ancestors to be people of diverse fates and life stories. A rich Latvian trader, a red rifleman loyal to Lenin, a carpenter with the KGB and war refugees in Sweden are only a few branches on his family tree, and the boy has heard something unusual and unforgettable about each and every one of these people.

Directed by Una Celma · Written by Una Celma

Your Rating

Cast

Make it a double feature

2h 32m together

My Family Tree

Imad's Childhood

Both from Una Celma.

More from Una CelmaSee all →

A Handful of Bullets

A Handful of Bullets · 2002

A Handful of Bullets

A teenage boy and his uncle compete for the love of a prostitute.

Month of the Witches

Month of the Witches · 2012

Month of the Witches

Two Latvian actors travel the country and visit different witches and healers to find purpose to their lives after years of alcoholism, which has had a great impact on their personal health. On the way they run into trouble, adventure and many comic, as well as tragic, situations.

Imad's Childhood

Imad's Childhood · 2021

Imad's Childhood

MovieDocumentary

A five-year-old Yazidi boy is released after nearly three years in ISIS captivity. Profoundly disturbed, brainwashed and weaponized by the abuse he endured, he displays violent hatred towards the world around him, and particular revulsion for his mother, who was held hostage alongside him. Imad considers himself to be an ISIS fighter and lashes out against children and adults alike in this intense horror film about a child possessed by terror. As menacing as his behaviour is, it is a mere imitation of the humiliation and brutality he was moulded by. He did exactly as he was told by ISIS in order to survive, and now, surrounded by other survivors, the love of his family and help from a therapist, will he thrive?

The Girls of 1960

The Girls of 1960 · 2023

The Girls of 1960

MovieDocumentary

This is an intimate and personal story about women who were supposed to be the children of complete and total socialism, about the environment they grew up in, their youth and their life now. Teacher Lapaine’s class reunion happens every year on March 21. This year is no different. Just like 25 years ago, when director Una Celma first documented her classmates in a film under the same title. The traditional table is set with beverages, cakes and candy, and the yearly photo taken. Nowadays, they are mothers, aunts and grandmothers. Their fates have changed, but what about themselves?

Egg Lady

Egg Lady · 2000

MovieDocumentary

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

One Ticket Please

One Ticket Please · 2017

One Ticket Please

MovieDocumentary

A documentary about a 78-year-old Indian woman in New York who is the world's most passionate theatergoer. Nicki Cochrane has been seeing a play every day for more than 25 years, acquiring free tickets using a variety of ingenious means.

Maximum Headroom

Maximum Headroom · 2005

Maximum Headroom

Members of a class of the 1980s hold an annual gathering. All together spend one night remembering the passions and hopes of youth and realising what has been achieved or missed.

Reply with Photo

Reply with Photo · 1999

Reply with Photo

MovieDramaRomance

The shy scientist Lars decides to publish a small ad in order to find a girlfriend. From the 218 replies, he selects Brigita, an attractive Latvian woman and invites her to Stockholm. But what actually happens after Brigita's arrival is far more complicated than Lars could ever have imagined.

Sisters

Sisters · 2022

Anastasia is 13 and her sister Diana is 11. The two sisters live in a Latvian orphanage. When they find out that an American family is ready to adopt them, Diana cannot wait to move to the States, while Anastasia is less excited about the idea of leaving her home.

The Wanderers

The Wanderers · 2020

MovieDocumentary

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.

Wild East

Wild East · 2021

MovieWesternAdventure

A runaway bride, a young peasant, mysterious illusionists and a manic investigator become entwined in a murderous affair at a Baltic German baron's manor.

Neon Spring

Neon Spring · 2022

Laine is a college girl from a bland middle-class suburb in Latvia. As Laine’s father distances himself from his crumbling marriage and his family, Laine is unable to cope with the separation and discovers the edgy Riga party scene, where she falls in love with seasoned raver Gunda. Going from rave to rave, the girls journey into a drug-fuelled underworld of anarchy, freedom and exploration.

Meyerhold's Flight

Meyerhold's Flight · 2018

Meyerhold's Flight

A dreamlike cinematic collage exploring the life, times and choices of the Russian avant-garde theatermaker Vsevolod Meyerhold. An innovative artist becomes a tool in the hands of the socialist revolution.

When You Look At Me

When You Look At Me · 2020

When You Look At Me

A problem that every film director has faced – how do you film something that does not exist? A director is making a documentary about an actor and his stalker – but the stalker never appears. As the deadline approaches, unusual steps must be taken.

Finding Elvis

Finding Elvis · 2008

MovieComedyFamily

Elvis is missing, and five of his classmates decide to go looking for him. While in hot pursuit of his tracks, the children are caught up in a whirl of exciting adventures, encountering all sorts of people and unusual situations.

Don't Talk About It

Don't Talk About It · 2007

Don't Talk About It

Beatrise is drifting in life. She has based her existence on unsuccessful relationships that have collapsed, like sand castles, one after the other. Forced to re-evaluate things, she realizes that she can only achieve harmony by learning to rely on herself, and not on illusory feelings or words.

More Like This

Big

MovieFantasyDrama

When a young boy makes a wish at a carnival machine to be big, he wakes up the following morning to find that it has been granted and his body has grown older overnight, but he is still the same 13-year-old boy inside. Now he must learn how to cope with the unfamiliar world of grown-ups, including getting a job and having his first romantic encounter with a woman.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee · 2009

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

MovieComedyDrama

After her much older husband forces a move to a suburban retirement community, Pippa Lee engages in a period of reflection and finds herself heading toward a quiet nervous breakdown.

Happily N'Ever After

Happily N'Ever After · 2007

Happily N'Ever After

MovieAdventureAnimation

An alliance of evil-doers, led by Frieda, looks to take over Fairy Tale Land. But when Ella realizes her stepmother is out to ruin her storybook existence, she takes a dramatic turn and blossoms into the leader of the resistance effort.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter