Potom

The documentary film Laidi tells the story of the last year of Laidi Primary school in Laidi Manor, southwestern Latvia. Ieva Epnere came to Laidi in autumn 2021 as part of a creative residency to learn about the history and stories of the parish and to find inspiration for a new artwork. During the residency, the idea of collaborating with the school's theatre group was born, and together with choreographer Elīna Gediņa the movement performance Laidu leģendas (eng. Tales of Laidi) was created. Parallel to the development of the idea, the artist learned about the decision of the Kuldīga County Council to close the school. The disturbing news prompted Epnere to document the situation. The result is a documentary film spanning all seasons and connecting the everyday life of the school with preparations for a reunion that will also be a farewell.

The ex-Soviet mining town Pyramiden, built on the archipelago of Svalbard, stopped functioning in the late 1980s and was finally deserted in 1998, leaving behind a number of empty residential buildings, an abandoned library, and a desolate cultural center that all together form a ghostly memory of life from the socialist past. Svalbard, historically known as no-man’s land, was used for mining natural resources during the Soviet era. As a result, the natural environment of the area has been altered. After the Soviet Union collapsed however, Svalbard—one of the northernmost places in the world’—has metamorphosed again and become a destination for researchers, escapists and adventurous passersby. In this film, Ieva Epnere performatively presents four human stories about the present state of this spectral place that both implicitly and explicitly reveal previously forgotten non-human worlds.