A Picnic by the Railway

Vitaly Mansky’s intimate and insightful new documentary finds him crisscrossing Ukraine in the wake of the Maidan uprising, which has left his relatives scattered on both sides of a highly charged and dizzyingly complex political situation.

Riga, Latvia. Four women: Elita, a passioned actress, Elina, her daughter, Iveta, a tourist guide and Paulina, a teenage ballet dancer. All are in love and going through strong emotions. A free-style composition about passion and arts, a visually stunning cinematic jazz partition.

After the fall of the Soviet Union large numbers of immigrants from the East stayed in Latvia for good, Latvians simply call them “Russians”. Over 20 years of independence later mutual suspicion and bias are still there in the most part of the local community. Therefore, a Latvian director involves an independent Russian speaking Norwegian colleague in helping him understand Latvian “Russians” and coming up with an integration plan. But soon enough it becomes clear that only Latvians themselves can manage the challenge. And so begins director’s journey away from the division “us / them”.

Three young men head to an isolated country house to shoot a film that they hope will bring them fame. They have no experience, but possess the will to change their lives. They make various attempts, but none seem to work. The team comes to a creative impasse, but the stakes are too high to give up. In hopes of drawing out their talents, they spend more and more time chipping away at each other. Previously hidden character traits come to light further complicating their relationship and the making of the film. Soon it's each man for himself. Just when the experiment seems utterly failed, one of them is discovered dead. It's not clear whether it's accidental, suicide or murder, but a real body in the scene satisfies - this could be the start of The Film.

Born in 1988, Kristaps finally wants to find out who is his real father. Family women do not tell if it is Guntis or Gvido. Kristaps goes to search for his father, acting as the boom operator of the documentary.

Ģirts and his friend plan an excursion to a mystical place, the abandoned Potassium Park. In order to get the family car, Ģirts lies and says he is going fishing, so his parents compel him to take his younger brother along. Ģirts’ friend backs out, and he is forced to go fishing after all. Bitter about the failed plan, Ģirts is mean, but his brother’s joy over the first fish caught is a self-revelation of his pervasive injustice towards his younger brother. As a gift, Ģirts shows him the secret entrance to Potassium Park. The brothers head off on an exciting foray through the abandoned and mysterious structures, until they accidentally uncover a box of explosives that tests their newly-developed camaraderie.

After receiving an edict from the municipal authorities about the closing of their school, the students at Mežvidi primary school continue to attend lessons and exercise creativity and fun, but it’s all clouded in a sense of fatality. They aren’t many students, and because of that the school resembles a large family rather than an institution. Near the Russian border, deep in the Latgale region, this place will become a nowhere-land once the youth depart. In an intimate message about a national problem, the story focuses on three sisters for whom life is about to drastically change. Through their daily lives and small adventures we try to understand the real meaning of the contention that “the countryside is dying”. And we see hope.