Miracle Hunters: Zilaiskalns

For 91-year-old Ruta acting is not just a career: it is her lifestyle. Once again, she starts working on a new role. This time the theme of the play provokes questions about her own life: how does one deal with ageing? And, most importantly, - is there a specific time when an actress should leave the stage?

A film about a unique personality with an unbreakable spirit – Gunārs Astra. He can be considered as Latvian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn or Václav Havel. Twenty years he spent in Soviet prisons because of anti-government thinking. In a 1983 trial by the Latvian SSR, Astra said, “I believe this time will fade like an evil nightmare.” The fate of Gunārs Astra himself was tragic. Like Alexei Navalny in Russia, Astra was poisoned with tea on a train to Saint Petersburg. A week later, Gunārs Astra died. Astra’s death became a symbol of light on the long road to the restoration of Latvia’s independence.

The story of young lives in the young offenders unit in Cēsis, Latvia. A place governed by its own codes and order, where unwritten rules are more powerful than the written word. In the making of the film, the production team witnessed a gamut of attitudes and emotions. Much can be understood from the youths’ gestures, facial expressions and from their actions. Secretive and uncommunicative, they are victims, yet perpetrators of crime. But, also still children.

During the reconstruction of the Valmiera Theatre building (2021-2024), artistic activities were never interrupted - the preparation of new productions and performances in the Round Hall continued. The promised one winter of patience turned into three. Rehearsals and performances took place in various locations in Valmiera, but the theatre building, despite the lack of water and heat, was never abandoned - with construction crews, through the dust and cold, actors and other theatre staff went to the rehearsal hall, the Round Hall, the carpentry workshop, and the administration to work as if nothing were unusual or difficult.