The Construction

In the 1966 the population of the Soviet Union was estimated at 235 million. A group of Latvian filmmakers traveled the length and breadth of the country to create a portrait of the diverse population.

A little girl wanders all alone in the morning, through a bustling city, looking for the white bells she noticed in the window of a florist's shop. This film heralded the birth of a new film language in Latvian cinema. It received awards at the San Francisco and Oberhausen festivals. and was included on the list of the “world’s 100 best short films” by the film critics at the 1995 Clermont-Ferrand film festival.. All three of the film’s authors together with their peers became the creators of the legendary Riga School of Poetic Documentary.

On his 18th birthday, Māris receives a motorcycle from his parents, and, while driving around with his friends, they pass a wedding car. The bride, Inese, is entering a loveless marriage, so she allows Māris to steal her from the wedding reception.

"The Worker is the last part of the trilogy, and differs somewhat from the rest. Rather then telling of yet another building site, the film centers on the abstract image of the Worker. The voice-over commentary describes the meaning of work in Soviet life – the role and significance of each individual. Melting an old tank at the smelting plant serves as a metaphor for peace that enables all workers to fully dedicate themselves to productive construction." VERZIO International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival

The Beginning is the first installment in Brauns’ trilogy dedicated to large-scale construction development in Latvia. It captures the building process of the Pļaviņas hydroelectric station on the country’s largest river. Observation of the builders, drivers, and engineers at work highlights the human aspect of construction work. The film’s title carries symbolic weight – this is the first Riga school film, Brauns’ directorial debut, the first widescreen picture made in Latvia, and the first part of a trilogy.

"A humorous story about the arrival of summer offers insight into the everyday lives of a town's inhabitants. An ironic voice-over, written by Armīns Lejiņš, comments on the events attentively shot by Uldis Brauns in the town. The scenes include a fire drill, a wedding, a school graduation, and other episodes of town life. Brauns and Lejiņš originally planned to make a fiction film, and filmed in Kuldīga, but the project was not realized at the time (the script was later used for Aivars Freimanis’ Kuldīga Frescoes, 1966), and was incorporated into this short film." - VERZIO International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival

Uldis Brauns' diploma film at VGIK

A chronicle created from archival materials, which in terms of form continues the path of montage films once begun by Braun. The events in the film take place during the period from the 1905 revolution to the manifestations of Latvia's efforts to regain independence in the Baltic Way and the Third Awakening.