MISTRUS MEDIA
LATVIA
Contact
GINTS GRUBE
CEO / Producer
INESE BOKA-GRUBE
Producer
+371 294552552
Company Profile
Mistrus Media (established in 2000) is one of the leading Latvian film production companies, working on international co-productions of feature films and documentaries (producing with Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Croatia, Russia, Portugal, Serbia), TV projects and film production and location services for foreign productions (Latvia has a cash rebate of up to 40%). Mistrus Media was included in the Euro 75 list of the independent production companies selected by Screen International in honour of Cannes Film Festival’s 75th anniversary.
Productions of Mistrus Media have received several national and international festival awards and they have been broadcasted on TV stations worldwide. A minority co-production of Mistrus Media - AT DUSK by Sharunas Bartas was the Official Selection of Cannes Film Festival, 2020. Minority co-production NATURAL LIGHT (dir. Denes Nagy, Hungary, France, Latvia, Germany) was selected for the Competition programme of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2021 and awarded with Silver Bear for the Best Director. In 2021 Mistrus Media released it's first mini-series EMILY. QUEEN OF THE PRESS. Feature drama JANUARY produced by Mistrus Media (Latvia, Poland, Lithuania), directed by Viesturs Kairišs premiered at the International Narrative Competition at the Tribeca International Film Festival in 2022.
INESE BOKA GRUBE
GINTS GRUBE
Company Highlights
MY FATHER THE SPY 2019
Genre: Documentary
Director: Jaak Kilmi, Gints Grūbe
Screenplay: Jaak Kilmi, Gints Grūbe
As a young Soviet student in 1978, Ieva could not have predicted that a holiday visit to her father, Imants Lešinskis, then working in the Soviet mission at the United Nations in New York City, would irreversibly split her life in two. Entangled in a dark spy game, Ieva was forced to leave her former life behind, never to see her mother or her homeland of Latvia again. Pulling back the curtain on the shady behind-the-scenes world of the Cold War, this film tells a daughter’s dramatic story of her double-agent father, exploring their relationship against the backdrop of events which have their roots over four decades ago.
WP: Sheffield Intl FF 2019 / EBS Intl. Documentary Festival / Manaki Brothers FF; Jihlava IDFF / Cineuropa Comopstela, Santiago / 13th Iran Intl. Documentary FF / Hot Docs / Nordische Filmtage Lübeck / National Film Awards: Best Editor
THE MOVER 2018
Format: Feature Film
Genre: Drama
Director: Davis Simanis
Screenplay: Davis Simanis, Matiss Gricmanis
Cast: Arturs Skrastins
Hardly anyone would have predicted that Žanis Lipke would miraculously become a hero. He was a completely ordinary Latvian blue-collar worker who had his share of worry and problems. After Latvia was annexed by the USSR in 1940, Žanis's daughter became a Communist and when it was occupied by Nazi Germany, she disappeared. In order to be able to support his family under wartime conditions, he worked at the German military aviation warehouses and supplemented his income by smuggling at night. Yet as soon as the German occupation regime began its bloody repressions against Riga's Jews, he made the hardly simple but humane decision that could prove lethal not only to himself but also to his wife and son. In the same lorry that was recently used to transport bootleg alcohol, dozens of people were plucked -- literally, from under German noses -- out of the Riga Ghetto and forced labour sites. As soon as their temporary hiding place came under threat of being discovered, Žanis made an even more audacious decision and began sheltering Jews at his own home, in a specially dug underground bunker under his shed. His wife Johanna and young son Zigis also became involved in the rescue operations. As one of the rescued later said: Žanis and his deed of rescuing complete strangers under the reigning conditions of cruelty constituted a genuine miracle. This film tells the story of the secret of Žanis Lipke's courage, attempting to understand and answer the question whether the key is Žanis's adventurous and daring spirit, stubbornness, or a sense of responsibility with regard to one's neighbour.
Moscow International FF
CHRONICLES OF MELANIE 2016
Format: Feature film
Genre: Drama
Director: Viesturs Kairish
Screenplay: Viesturs Kairish
Cast: Sabine Timoteo, Guna Zarina, Lilita Ozolina, Maija Doveika,
The night of June 14, 1941 brought death and destruction to over forty thousand individuals deported from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to Siberia under the order of Stalin. Stuffed in train cattle cars, among them are the Vanags family - Melanie and her little son Andrei, forcibly separated from her husband Alexander. After long and difficult journey Melanie and other deported women find themselves in Siberia. The promised reuniting with the men does not happen. Instead, they are herded into a temporary camp and are asked to sign a paper stating that they have chosen voluntarily to stay in Siberia for twenty years.
WP Tallin Black Nights main competition: Award Best cinematography