Stay Negative

From true events to total fantasy. From comedy to horror. Latvian Song and Dance Festival Celebration in the vision of six Latvian directors.

Young police detective Romāns Skulte joins the Riga Central Precinct in the mid-1990s. In no time at all, Skulte’s youthful enthusiasm clashes with the harsh reality of the streets, leading him to the realisation that in order to purge the city of crime, ethical and legal boundaries must be breached.

It is a hot summer day and the Song Festival rehearsal is underway for the kokle ensemble. The exhausting rehearsal is enlivened by the arrival of percussionist Reinis. The ensemble's soloist Zane feels that this fateful encounter strikes not only the strings of the kokle, but also the strings of her heart. After the rehearsal, at the school where everyone is staying overnight, Zane realizes that her instrument is missing. It is the eve of the concert, and in the morning they must go to the final grand concert. She asks Reinis for help, as he is the last person to have seen the instrument. As the two wander through the school's dark corridors, it begins to seem that perhaps they will find more than just the lost kokle.

In the north of Latvia, in Drusti, there is "Savvaļa", a place where art and untamed nature meet. The young artist Katrina grew up here, for whom the forest is a place to find one's way, not to get lost. "Umbra" is a poetic documentation of the open-air art space created by the painter Andris Eglītis and his associates through Katrīna's personal experience and the scope of the world of the detached painter. It is a story about a community of artists and their creative everyday life – full of both joy and doubt.

When there is nowhere left to hide, only the voice remains.

The State Electrotechnical Factory's cultural palace, or vefiņš, was opened on March 1, 1960, and was allocated for the factory's needs. However, today science has been banished from these walls. Alongside the brightest local pop artists, countless feet and legs dressed in pastels tread the boards of this stage every year to determine which group will take center stage at the Daugava Stadium during the Song and Dance Festival. Meanwhile, the young, promising and provocative documentary filmmaker Ingmārs Somis has come here to make a film about the "other side" of folk dancing on stage - about nationalistic programming, worn-out feet, sunburn and blouses tucked into underpants. He has decided to expose the teachers, lecture the parents, liberate the dancers, destroy the VEF cultural palace, get hold of the Great Kristaps and enter the Latvian cultural canon.

Jacob's desire for a voice break and self-affirmation becomes the main event in an adventure where the school choir, friendship, and mysterious aliens intersect in a pre-apocalyptic twist of fate.

Young flutist and conductor Maija's secret dream has come true—she has been entrusted with conducting her first orchestra. However, Maija's inner insecurity and fear of conflict do not help her cope with the energetic youth orchestra. In addition, the overly cheerful choirmaster Kārlis, in his attempts to help the young conductor, only undermines her already non-existent authority. When Maija remembers the legendary conductor Leonīds Vīgners and his authoritative leadership style, she feels a strange inspiration. The changes in the young conductor's personality surprise both her and her orchestra, which has only three rehearsals left before the concert. Maija must decide how to lead her orchestra to the concert - in the style of Leonīds Vīgners, or in her own?