Company Highlights

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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.

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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.

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THE MOVER  2018

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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.  

 

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Moscow International FF

 

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CHRONICLES OF MELANIE  2016

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Format:            Feature film

Genre:              Drama

Director:          Viesturs Kairish

Screenplay:     Viesturs Kairish

Cast:                 Sabine Timoteo, Guna Zarina, Lilita Ozolina, Maija Doveika, 

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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

 

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