RIGA IFF 2017 FILM CATALOGUE (ENG) by Riga International Film Festival

THIS CATALOGUE WAS MADE IN COLLABORATION WITH DESIGN STUDIO

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EDITOR TRANSLATORS

ASNĀTE VASIĻJEVA DACE ANDŽĀNE, PĀVELS SMIŠĻĀJEVS

DESIGNERS ART WORKERS

DANIELA TREIJA, EDGARS ZVIRGZDIŅŠ UNA GRANTS, KRISTAPS ZELMENIS

PAPER

AMBER GRAPHIC 80 G/M2 ARCTIC VOLUME WHITE 100 G/M2

PRINTER

GREEN PRINT

WELCOME TO THE RIGA IFF!

THE TEAM

RIGA IFF FEATURE FILM COMPETITION Multi-genre films from the Baltic Sea region

SHORT RIGA Shorts, experimental cinema and music videos

IN KINO VERITAS Retrospective & research programme B-MOVIE. THE GENRE. THE MYTH.

ARTDOCFEST/RIGA World documentary programme

NORDIC HIGHLIGHTS Bridging the Nordic – Baltic states of mind

KIDS WEEKEND Films for the whole family

HOME MADE Films from the Baltics

BEAST Europe’s New Promises

RIGA IFF SELECTION The festival’s festival programme

#FIRST_DAY_SCREENING Flying Monks Temple

RIGA IFF #OPENING_EVENT Sound We See: Riga. LIVE

#SPECIAL_SCREENING ERA OF DANCE

SELECT RIGA IFF EVENTS

FRIENDS OF THE FESTIVAL

LIENE TREIMANE Director

Artistic Director

Festivals are not just a screening space, they are a birthplace of film. The festival is a place of meetings and conversations.

There are different ways to experience cinema. Our way is to enjoy it together and quite intensely – both in film theatres and conversations. This is how we discover more not only about cinema and ourselves but also about each other, and that is what matters.

I thought about the task of film festival and realized that festivals are wonderful cinema sanctuaries. Territories with the most favourable conditions for the development and conservation of outstanding cinema.

ELVISS ZANTS

KRISTĪNE SIMSONE

ANNA ZAČA

Founder and President

SONORA BROKA

AIJA BĒRZIŅA

Head of Communication & Brand Strategy

Curator KIDS WEEKEND

Curator SHORT RIGA

Have you heard a performance of Steve Reich’s Clapping Music? That is the precision and swing it takes to somehow make this layer cake of 10+1 days happen.

The goal of the KIDS WEEKEND is to create a pleasant surprise and lead to the discovery of diversity and thrill of cinema. There is no greater joy than seeing spectators with shining eyes after a screening.

The best short films start their lives in film festivals. I belong to the type of shortfilm programmers who watch a lot but show little. I show only what you must see!

VITĀLIJS MANSKIS

Curator ARTDOCFEST/RIGA

AMANDA BOKA

Riga IFF INDUSTRY EVENTS

ANETE EGLĪTE

Unlike the previous years, we have forgone a motto for our programme. We understood that a motto restricts the diversity of a programme. Go ahead and choose any film! We are certain that it will impress you!

Industry events for filmmakers are those magic the-world-joined-hands moments. This year the world’s hands will be joined during the whole period of Riga IFF!

The world of cinema is intertwined with it’s audience. Our festival is a meeting place. People meet each other and they meet film.

Riga IFF EVENTS

RIGA IFF TEAM AIJA BĒRZIŅA Member of the Board Founder/President aija@rigaiff.lv LIENE TREIMANE Member of the Board Festival Director liene@rigaiff.lv

FILM PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT SONORA BROKA Artistic Director Curator – RIGA IFF SELECTION, NORDIC HIGHLIGHTS, IN KINO VERITAS, HOME MADE, BEAST sonora@rigaiff.lv KRISTĪNE SIMSONE Curator – KIDS WEEKEND kristine@rigaiff.lv VITĀLIJS MANSKIS Curator – ARTDOCFEST/RIGA manski@artdocfest.com ILZE PELNĒNA Project manager – ARTDOCFEST/RIGA ilze@artdocfest.com ANNA ZAČA Curator – SHORT RIGA anna@rigaiff.lv AGNESE LOGINA Curator – #BMV agnese@rigaiff.lv

COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT ELVISS ZANTS Head of Communication & Brand Strategy elviss@rigaiff.lv ANNA MACKO Media coordinator press@rigaiff.lv RIGA IFF video EDUARDS LAĶIS (kind.lv) KASPARS KURSIŠS (kind.lv) ARTŪRS LIEPIŅŠ Photographer ANDREJS STROKINS Catalogue editor, Head of Translations department ASNĀTE VASIĻJEVA KRISTS KONDRĀTS Webpage developer

EVENTS DEPARTMENT

ADMISSIONS DEPARTMENT

ANETE EGLĪTE Head of Events department events@rigaiff.lv

KASPARS KONDRATJUKS Head of Admissions Department vadītājs admissions@rigaiff.lv

AMANDA BOKA Head curator – RIGA IFF Industry Events amanda@rigaiff.lv

ANNA MIESNIECE Accreditation and INFO centre manager admissions@rigaiff.lv

KRISTĪNE SIMSONE RIGA IFF FORUM coordinator kristine@rigaiff.lv

FILM DEPARTMENT

INGRĪDA NAGLE Curator – RIGA IFF ZIP-MEETING ingrida@tasse.lv AGNESE LOGINA Curator – RIGA IFF CRITICS MEETING agnese@rigaiff.lv BALTIC FILM TALENT LAB project managers VIKTORIJA KASPEROVIČA victoria@rigaiff.lv ANNA ZAČA anna@rigaiff.lv PĒTERIS BRĪNIŅŠ Technical production manager pb@pxb.lv

LIENE HAPANIONEKA Print traffic coordinator prints@rigaiff.lv HĀRDIJS CIBUĻSKIS Film storage manager films@rigaiff.lv

GUEST SERVICE DEPARTMENT Head of Guest service JANA PAKALNA guests@rigaiff.lv Logistics & hospitality manager SANDIJA SKRASTIŅA

DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT Volunteer coordinators DAIGA LIVČĀNE MONTA TĪĢERE volunteer.rigaiff@gmail.com

SERGEJS TIMOŅINS SERGEJS MUSATOVS distribution@rigaiff.lv

RIGA IFF FEATURE FILM COMPETITION FILMS FROM THE BALTIC SEA REGION

Each year, 8 to 10 films from the Baltic Sea region are selected for the RIFF Feature Film Competition. An international jury of film professionals evaluates the contenders to the Riga IFF Prize. The competition does not impose any genre or style restrictions therefore the programme can consist of documentaries as well as fiction films, animation or cross-genre films. Usually films that stand out with an original director’s style or surprising innovations in storytelling, editing or frame aesthetics are selected for this programme. The Riga IFF Feature Film Competition and

the retrospective programme IN KINO VERITAS are the most vivid testaments of changes and current trends in the cinematic language. In this programme, a heartfelt and contemplative documentary can exist side by side with an example of ‘the new Russian hard-core cinema’ and a deeply personal audio-visual diary with an absurd story of the triumph of Socialism in an apple-pickers camp. It allows the audience more or less step out of their comfort zone without leaving the comfort of the cinema seat.

RIGA IFF FEATURE FILM COMPETITION JURY

Timo Malmi

Bernd Buder

Dovilė Butnoriūtė

Artistic director of Midnight Sun Film Festival in Finnish Lapland, a movie critic (tv) in Ilta-Sanomat, the second largest newspaper in Finland and the editor of Filmihullu (Movie crazy), the oldest Finnish film magazine. Has been a leader of the film society in Järvenpää for 48 years, and runs his own weekly film club. He has written a book (with Jari Keränen) about cooking and cinema.

Programme director of the Film Festival Cottbus. Curating and programming for several film festivals, consulting and scouting for the Forum section at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Cinedays in Skopje and the Rügen International Film Festival which will hold its first edition in October 2017. Works also as a moderator and film journalist, currently for the German film magazine Filmdienst.

Head of Department of Film Promotion, Information and Heritage at the Lithuanian Film Centre. Has experience in all aspects of Event Coordinating and International Projects Management. She has initiated many cultural projects and taken organizational part in more than 300 audiovisual events in Lithuania.

Dāvis Sīmanis

Lenka Tirpākova

Latvian filmmaker, professor, and theorist. He has directed a number of documentary and fiction feature films. Teaches directing and film theory at universities in Riga and Helsinki. His own films have participated and been awarded in a number of festivals around the world – MIFF, CIFF, IDFA, CPH:DOX and many others.

Works in the Programme Department of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival; a member of the selection committee and a programmer in charge of the East of the West competition. Also works as a programmer for the Prague Short Film Festival. She had served on the juries at several international film festivals, including Vilnius, Wiesbaden, or Baltic Event at Tallinn IFF.

Lukasz Ronduda

Alexander Vartanov

A HEART OF LOVE

BLUEBERRY FIELDS

PL, 2017, 78’, pol

RU, 2016, 84’, rus

SERCE MIŁOŚCI

ДАЧНИКИ

In this futuristic romance, outsider artists After a chance meeting with a girl, a nameless create a world in which everything can be boy becomes her lover and guardian angel. designed and controlled, everything but Together they avenge the girl’s rape, fleeing their own feelings. Do the partners truly love into the woods in an attempt to escape the one another or are they merely fascinated modern world and civilization. They commit by their own mirror reflections? An attempt more crimes, killing encountered people at to examine the narcissism of contemporary random, until the third character comes into young people who are part of Poland’s artis- the story, changing the dynamic of the lovers’ tic Bohemia in the age of social media and relationship. It’s an emotional story of pasconsumption. sion, violence and the impossibility of running The film is inspired by lives of two Warsaw away from oneself. based artists. Wojciech Bąkowski is one of The previous feature film by Alexander VarPoland’s most charismatic modern artists tanov has been called a nightmarish Russian with a fully developed stage image. Zuzanna take on Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959). This Bartoszek creates drawings, writes poetry, film resembles a tragedy that took place in and is affected by a number of autoimmune Russia near Pskov when the Blueberry Fields disorders that make her look unique was completed already. PROD Kuba Kosma PROD COMP Serce CAM Lukasz Gutt MUSIC Wojciech Bąkowski WITH Justyna Wasilewska, Jacek Poniedzialek, Magdalena Cielecka SALES Visit Films Splendid Palace Small hall Thursday, 14/09 16:00 (12+)

PROD Alexander Vartanov, Tatiana Meskhi PROD COMP Blancache Production CAM Ivan Finogeev, Denis Klebleyev, Vsevolod Kaptur, Ivan Branovetz WITH Artur Beschastny, Aleksey Maslodudov, Ekaterina Steblina SALES Blancache Production DISTR (LV) Rusfilm GbR Splendid Palace Small hall Friday, 15/09 20:30 (16+)

Ole Giæver

Anna Eborn

FROM THE BALCONY

LIDA

NO, 2016, 86’, nor

DK/SW/FR, 2017, 89’, ger/ukr/rus/swe

An odyssey through time and space, starting from the director’s own balcony. A journey filled with all the absurd, existential, trivial and sentimental thoughts and fantasies he came up with in a year, to see if it’s possible to grasp nothing more than the meaning of life. He is living in Brochmannsgate 12A, Oslo, Norway, Europe, Earth, Universe. This film is a time capsule filled with everyday life in Western Europe with all its holidays, memories and fantasies, questions big and small. It invites to think about one’s life and choices. What does it mean to be human today? And why do we rather want to speak to ourselves on a smartphone than socialize with strangers at a job gathering?

An impressionistic portrait of an octogenarian Swedish woman. The Sweden of the 1930s, a Siberian labour camp, and contemporary Ukraine. By blending time and places – a narrative painting is created about a family love that only exist in memories. The main character Lida, her son and sister have lived through war, a war that they aren’t a part of, or involved in, but are, nonetheless, irreversibly affected by. Now they can only be connected to each other through their common memories and the distances between them seem to vanish. The film tells about the cycle of time and a community with a unique language – an old Swedish dialect – disappearing.

FRA BALKONGEN

PROD Maria Ekerhovd PROD COMP Mer Film CAM Øystein Mamen MUSIC Ola Fløttum WITH Ole Giæver, Marte Magnusdotter Solem SALES Mer Film I Vest (Bergen) DISTR (LV) Riga International Film Festival Splendid Palace Small hall Friday, 15/09 16:00

PROD Katja Adomeit, David Herdies PROD COMP Adomeit Film, Momento Film CAM Nadim Carlsen, Johan Hannu, Kristoffer Jönsson, Virginie Surdej MUSIC Fredrik Wictorsson WITH Lida Utas Andreasdotter, Vikali Volodja Mikitovich, Maria Malmas SALES Antipode Sales & Distribution Llc Splendid Palace Small hall Wednesday, 13/09 16:00

Daniel Joseph Borgman

Rainer Sarnet

LOVING PIA

NOVEMBER

DK, 2017, 100’, dan

EE/NL/PO, 2016, 115’, est

Sixty-year-old Pia is intellectually disabled and lives with her aging mother Guittou in a farmhouse on the Danish island of Langeland. She dreams of meeting a man. Pia does exercises and strolls along the beach; she reads books, visits a day centre in the city and looks after her goose Lola with tenderness. Her conversations with her mother focus on the future – how and where will Pia live once she dies? The days come and go. One day Pia meets Jens at the harbour. The two of them get talking and start spending time together... A fictional tale that is based on Pia’s real life and is embedded in her everyday routines.

A mixture of magic, black humor and romantic love. The story is set in a pagan Estonian village where werewolves, the plague, and spirits roam. The villagers’ main problem is how to survive the cold, dark winter. And, to that aim, nothing is taboo. People steal from each other, from their German manor lords, and from spirits, the devil, and Christ. Stealing as an obsession. Estonian pagan and European Christian mythologies come together in this film. Both mythologies look for a miracle; for an ancient force that gives one a soul. This film is about souls – longing for a soul, selling your soul, and living without a soul. The film is based on Andrus Kivirähk’s novel Rehepapp.

PROD Katja Adomeit PROD COMP Adomeit Film CAM Daniel Borgman MUSIC Kristian Paulsen WITH Pia Skovgaard, Céline Skovgaard, Jens Jensen SALES Pascale Ramonda

PROD Katrin Kissa, Ellen Havenith, Lukasz Dzięcioł PROD COMP Homeless Bob Productions, Opus Film, PRPL CAM Mart Taniel MUSIC Jacaszek WITH Rea Lest, Jörgen Liik SALES Oscilloscope DISTR (LV) Homeless Bob Production

AT ELSKE PIA

Splendid Palace Small hall Thursday, 14/09 18:00

Splendid Palace Small hall Wednesday, 13/09 18:00 Splendid Palace Small hall Saturday, 16/09 18:00

Albina Griniūtė

PARADISE GOWNS

Mika Rättö

SAMURAI RAUNI

ATELJĖ „ROJAUS DRABUŽIAI“

SAMURAI RAUNI REPOSAARELAINEN

LT/FI/SE 2016, 52’, fin, swe, est

FI, 2016, 80’, fin

The vast Finnish archipelago consists of thousands of rocky islands. It’s a place where time passes differently, the mind has space to wander and even the smallest everyday things can be a source of endless fascination. Here we see five archipelago dwellers with lives so different, it makes one think that perhaps every man is indeed an island. They are all part of the archipelago’s landscape. But look beyond the surface and you’ll see that all islands are in fact parts of the same terrain. A poetic essay on life, death, and the taste of early potatoes.

Rauni Reposaarelainen is an overpowering, alcoholic samurai who sows damage and sorrow in his surroundings in Meri-Pori, western Finland. A mystical pseudonym Shametear makes a contract with the Satakunta Guild of Ninjas in order to assassinate Rauni. Rauni easily survives the assassination attempt. This is the beginning of the bloody and absurd road movie in Meri-Pori’s samurai reality. The film is a surreal and visually beautiful tragicomedy that open-mindedly combines Finnish and Japanese culture with beautiful northern nature.

PROD Gajane Kalatshjan, Vygantas Kirejevas, Liisa Juntunen PROD COMP Benjamin River Productions CAM Saulius Lukoševicius MUSIC Pekka Lehti WITH Gajane Kalatshjan, Vygantas Kirejevas, Liisa Juntunen SALES Just A Moment

PROD Harri Sippola PROD COMP Moderni Kanuuna CAM Sami Sänpäkkilä MUSIC Pasi Salmi WITH Mika Rättö, Reetta Turtiainen, Veera Elo SALES Black Lion Pictures Oy DISTR (LV) Moderni Kanuuna

Splendid Palace Small hall Saturday, 16/09 13:30

Splendid Palace Small hall Saturday, 16/09 16:00 (12+)

Julian Radlmaier

Krista Burāne

SELF-CRITICISM OF A BOURGEOIS DOG

FAIRYTALE ABOUT THE EMPTY SPACE

DE, 2017, 99’, ger

LV, 2017, 70’, lav

SELBSTKRITIK EINES BUERGERLICHEN HUNDES

PASAKA PAR TUKŠO TELPU

A bourgeois dog confesses how he was This documentary fairy-tale tells the story of transformed from being a filmmaker to be- the life and work of the accomplished Euing four-legged: Unable to find financing, ropean scenographer and educator Andris Julian is forced to accept a job as a seasonal Freibergs. The artist paints a self-portrait by farmhand. However, he makes the young Ca- shaping the stage for an imaginary producnadian expat Camille believe that he’s going tion titled Andris Freibergs. He transforms to do research for a communist fairy-tale film himself into a space that contains close to and offers her the leading part. They arrive at eighty years worth of stunning success, tragthe deceitfully idyllic scene of an exploitative ic loss, birth, and death. It is an attempt to apple plantation. While Julian finds the man- create the perfect empty space – one that ual labour agonizing, Camille enthusiastically would simultaneously encompass everything plunges into the alleged research. The owner and nothing, the beginning and the end. of the plantation accidentally gets killed, and This story takes place in the shadow of death, an attempted revolution ends up in confusion. which has been constantly present in the proAt this moment, however, the sparrows in the tagonist’s life. And yet, it is also a tale about trees come up with a plan... the joy of life and hope in the future. PROD Kirill Krasovski, Andreas Louis PROD COMP Deutsche Film - und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB)/Faktura Film CAM Markus Koob WITH Julian Radlmaier, Deragh Campbell, Beniamin Forthi SALES Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie Berlin Splendid Palace Small hall Friday, 15/09 18:00

PROD Uldis Cekulis, Agne Skane PROD COMP VFS Films CAM Valdis Celmiņš, Jānis Šēnbergs MUSIC Reinis Sējāns WITH Andris Freibergs SALES VFS Films Splendid Palace Large hall Wednesday, 13/09 19:00

SHORT RIGA

We have come from far and near. Some bold, some shy, some gentle and some brutal, some rough and some elaborateâ&#x20AC;Ś We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a single thing in common. We are here to compete, although aware that whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most important is the game itself. Come play with us! We promise to play fair... at least some of us.

SHORT RIGA

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Anna Zača Curator – SHORT RIGA Thirty-two shorts – all the fears and problems, all the desires and pleasures of contemporary world squeezed in 459 minutes. With high hopes for discovering and honouring the auteur cinema of tomorrow!

Torunn Nyen Film curator (The Norwegian Short Film Festival, festival Movies on War), guest curator of SHORT RIGA International Competition I enjoyed every minute of the selection process. Watching interesting films from all over the world, discussing new talents and their art with professional colleagues and creating an exciting and important program, has been a privilege.

SHORT RIGA INTERNATIONAL JURY

Antra Gaile Producer, Latvia

Christian Stark Short film curator, Switzerland

Dan Angelescu Curator and curatorial projects manager, Romania

Since joining the film studio Mistrus Media, Antra has gained a profound experience in the production of creative and historical documentaries. Alumni of Emerging Producers, an industry flagship project of the Ji.hlava IDFF.

Member of the selection committee of the Swiss Competition at the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Switzerland’s most significant short film festival. Loves to pass on his passion for film by holding lectures in classes about film analysis.

Festival manager and associate curator of the Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival. Co-founder of the AAA+ curatorial collective. Involved in numerous moving image related activities.

Joanna Rytel Artist, Sweden

Maija Kurševa Māksliniece, Latvija

Explorer of controversial topics. She has developed a complex artistry, which points out the most poignant issues of gender, power and identity; approaches them with great integrity, making her address accessible to those outside the usual art and film worlds.

Artist, Latvia. A wide-ranging artist who works in various media. A lecturer at the Art Academy of Latvia, founder of the gallery LOW – a place for spontaneous ideas and manifestations of alive artistic process – and member of the artist collective Popper Publishing.

SHORT RIGA

CINEMA CINEMA

CINEMATOGRAPHICAL JOYRIDES Kino Bize Thursday, 14/09 18:30 (16+)

Florian Babikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Caire, Théophile Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon, Lucas Navarro

GARDEN PARTY FR, 2016, 7’ IN A DESERTED RICH HOUSE, A COUPLE OF AMPHIBIANS EXPLORE THEIR SURROUNDINGS AND FOLLOW THEIR PRIMAL INSTINCTS. PROD Luce Grosjean PROD COMP Ecole MOPA MUSIC Romain Montiel / Maaav SALES Sève Films

Balbina Bruszewska

THE WIZARD OF U.S.

CZARNOKSIEZNIK Z KRAINY U.S. PL, 2016, 23’, eng THE WIZARD OF U.S. IS AN ANIMATED COLLAGE, A SOCIAL SATIRE REFERRING TO A POPULAR AMERICAN STORY BY L. F. BAUM THE WIZARD OF OZ. PROD Anna Mroczek PROD COMP WJTeam CAM Mariusz Andryszczyk, Balbina Bruszewska, Tomasz Laptaszynski MUSIC Adam Hajzer, Kuba Krupski & Samantha Stuhr – YU, Duran Duran (Waren Cuccurullo, Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor), Martin Tillman, Nate Pennington WITH Toni Walker, Kasia Bohos, Aneta Borizovski SALES WJTeam

Khatuna Khundadze

Christoph Girardet

A.D. 2015

IT WAS STILL HER FACE

A.D.2015

GE, 2016, 10’ GEORGIAN-FILM IS ONE OF WORLD’S OLDEST MOVIE STUDIOS. NOW IT LOOKS LIKE A GHOST LAND.

PROD Khatuna Khundadze PROD COMP TAFU & HFF Munich CAM Laura Kansy WITH Robert, Nani, Gavaz SALES Khatuna Khundadze DISTR (LV) Khatuna Khundadze

DE, 2017, 8’ THE PAINTED PORTRAITS… MESMERIZE BOTH THE VIEWER IN THE MOVIE AND IN FRONT OF THE SCREEN. PROD Christoph Girardet CAM Found Footage SALES Christoph Girardet DISTR (LV) Light Cone

Damián Alquichire

Alberto Taibo Piñeiro

THE CHIMERICAL MUSEUM OF SHIFTING SHAPES

LENI K.

CO, 2017, 4’ A TOUR OF THE PLACE WILL PROVE THAT SOMETIMES ONE PAINTING IS NOT ENOUGH. PROD Damián Alquichire PROD COMP Damián Alquichire CAM Damián Alquichire MUSIC Blas Atehortúa. SALES Damián Alquichire

SP, 2016, 19’, spa GERMAN PHOTOGRAPHER AND FILMMAKER LENI KASTELL LENI TALKS ABOUT HER MEMORIES IN 1945. PROD Carolina Pérez PROD COMP Taibotai, Caroline P.C. CAM Jesús Redondo, Abel Morán WITH Brianna Salinas, Dulce Fernández, Claudia Back SALES ECAM

SHORT RIGA

WAITING

WHEN YOU ARE LONGING FOR SOMEONE, SOMETHING OR SOMEWHERE Kino Bize Thursday, 14/09 20:30 (16+)

Judit Wunder

Karolis Kaupinis

BOND

WATCHKEEPING

Hungary, 2016, 10’ A FILM ABOUT A LONELY WOMAN WITH A YARN-BALL IN HER BELLY.

LT, 2017, 16’, lit FATHER AND SON TRY TO MAKE THE DYING MOTHER FEEL COMFORTABLE DURING HER FINAL HOURS.

KÖTELÉK

PROD József Fülöp PROD COMP Moholy- Nagy University of Art and Design MUSIC Composer Violin: Gergely Balázs SALES Magyar Nemzeti Filmalap

BUDĖJIMAS

PROD Marija Razgutė PROD COMP m-films CAM Simonas Glinskis WITH Darius Meškauskas, Donatas Želvys SALES m-films

Laila Pakalnina

Edvard Karijord, Bendik Mondal

HELLO HORSE!

I’M FREE

LV, 2017, 24’ A FILM ABOUT EVERYTHING CHANGING WHILE REMAINING THE SAME.

NO, 2016, 20’ THE FAMILY’S EXPERIENCE OF GEIR’S DISAPPEARANCE. LIVING WITH UNANSWERED QUESTIONS.

ZIRDZIŅ, HALLO!

PROD Laila Pakalnina PROD COMP Hargla Company CAM Ivars Burtnieks

Naomi van Niekerk

MY MUM’S BONKERS MY MAMMA IS BOSSIES

ZA, 2017, 4’, afr OUT OF ONE EYE SHE CRIES PUCCINI, OUT OF THE OTHER SHE REPRIMANDS ME. PROD Naomi van Niekerk CAM Naomi van Niekerk MUSIC Giacomo Puccini SALES Some Shorts

I DET FRI

PROD Edvard Karijord, Bendik Mondal PROD COMP Westerdals Oslo ACT CAM Christian Karlsen MUSIC Nils Martin Larsen WITH (interviewees) Torill Karijord, Knut Karijord, Karin Karijord SALES Westerdals Oslo ACT, Edvard Karijord

SHORT RIGA

THE OTHER WORLD PLACES THAT ONLY EXIST THERE AND THEN, WHERE AND WHEN WE ARE NOT PRESENT Kino Bize Friday, 15/09 16:30 (16+) Kino Bize Saturday, 16/09 16:30 (16+)

Zhong Su

Reber Dosky

ANIMAL YEAR

MERYEM

CN, 2016, 7’ A STORY ABOUT RECYCLING, ABOUT A FUTURE WHERE TWO STRIKINGLY DIFFERENT WORLDS COLLIDE.

NL, 2017, 16’, kur THE WOMEN AT THE HEART OF THE FIGHT AGAINST IS.

本命年

PROD/CAM/MUSIC Zhong Su

PROD Jos de Putter PROD COMP DeepFocus Web Docs CAM Reber Dosky SALES Some Shorts

Michaela Müller

Ben Pointeker

AIRPORT

IMPASSENGER

CH/HR, 2017, 11’, eng AIRPORT – A PLACE WHERE THE LIMITS OF BORDERS, SECURITY AND TOLERANCE ARE TESTED.

AT, 2017, 6’ A CINEMATIC POEM ABOUT A BLEAK INNER WORLD WHERE LONELINESS REIGNS.

PROD Ruedi Schick, Ankica Jurić Tilić PROD COMP Schick Productions, Kinorama MUSIC Hrvoje Štefotić WITH Gordana Kovačić, Eva Perrotta SALES Schick Productions

PROD/CAM Ben Pointeker WITH Jiang Zheng Zheng, Fenfen Huang SALES Sixpackfilm

Svitlana Shymko

Nikola Ilić

THE FALL OF LENIN

RAKIJADA

ЛЕНІНОПАД UA, 2017, 11’, rus/ukr AN IRONIC STORY ABOUT THE FAREWELL TO THE PHANTOMS OF THE USSR IN UKRAINE.

RS/CH, 2016, 20’, srp IN PRANJANI, A SMALL VILLAGE IN SERBIA, LOCALS COMPETE IN RAKIJA-MAKING AND RAKIJA-DRINKING.

PROD Yulia Serdyukova, Svitlana Shymko PROD COMP Docudays UA MUSIC Andor Sperling SALES Docudays UA

PROD Laurin Merz PROD COMP PiXiU Films GmbH SALES PiXiU Films

SHORT RIGA

SPACE BETWEEN US ON US WHO CREATE INTELLECTUAL, PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL SPACES Kino Bize Friday, 15/09 18:30 (16+)

Heta Jäälinoja

QIU Yang

PENELOPE

A GENTLE NIGHT

EE/FI, 2016, 5’ THE DOORBELL RINGS. PENELOPE CLEANS HER APARTMENT IN A HURRY.

CN, 2017, 15’, chi A MOTHER WITH HER DAUGHTER MISSING, REFUSES TO GO GENTLE INTO THIS GOOD NIGHT.

PROD Olga Pärn PROD COMP Estonian Academy of Arts MUSIC Jukka Herva SALES Estonian Academy of Arts

小城二月

PROD QIU Yang PROD COMP Wild Grass Films CAM Constanze Schmitt WITH LI Shuxian SALES Some Shorts

Jang Nari

Ülo Pikkov

MY FATHER’S ROOM

EMPTY SPACE

KR, 2016, 8’, kor SINCE HE LEFT, THE PAIN AND ANGER HAD BEGUN TO FADE.

EE, 2016, 10`, est AN IMMENSE DISSAPPOINTMENT. INSTEAD OF A PUPPY FOR HER BIRTHDAY SHE GOT A FATHER…

PROD Jang Nari MUSIC GOK- BANG SALES KIAFA [AniSEED]

TÜHI RUUM

PROD Kerdi Oengo, Andrus Raudsalu PROD COMP OÜ Nukufilm CAM Raivo Möllits MUSIC Pärt Uusberg SALES OÜ Nukufilm

Armands Začs

Niki Lindroth von Bahr

IF TREES COULD TALK

THE BURDEN

DENISS

MIN BÖRDA

LV, 2017, 26’, lav DENISS IS A STAND-UP COMEDIAN WORKING AT A FAST FOOD CHAIN.

SE, 2017, 14’, swe BORING JOBS AND EXISTENTIAL ANXIETY. THE APOCALYPSE IS A TEMPTING LIBERATOR.

PROD Elīna Gediņa-Ducena PROD COMP Mistrus Media CAM Reinis Aristovs MUSIC Matīss Runtulis SALES Mistrus Media

PROD Kalle Wettre PROD COMP Malade AB CAM Niki Lindroth von Bahr MUSIC Hans Appelqvist WITH Voices: Olof Wretling, Mattias Fransso

SHORT RIGA

TAKE US AS WE ARE

ON EVERYTHING THEY EXPECT FROM US Kino Bize Friday, 15/09 20:30 (16+)

Cecilia Lundqvist

Jonas Selberg Augustsén

ATTACK

P.O.V.

SE, 2017, 2’, eng A WOMAN WHO BREAKS THE SOCIAL NORM AND GETS ATTACKED BY ANOTHER WOMAN.

SE, 2017, 20’, swe AN EXTREME SUBCULTURE. YOUNG MEN WITH SNOWMOBILES IN THE LAPLAND MOUNTAINS.

PROD/MUSIC/SALES Cecilia Lundqvist

PROD Kaj Snijder PROD COMP ACNE FILM AB CAM Johan Lundborg MUSIC Tony Österholm WITH Gustav Corin, Alexander Thomas, Lucas Brunström Loft SALES Acne Film AB

Maja Borg

Rebecca Wirkola Kjellmann

MAN

LIGHT ME UP

SE/GB, 2016, 13’ THE PHYSICAL TRANSFORMATION AND DECONSTRUCTION OF GENDER IDENTITY DURING A PREGNANCY.

NO, 2017, 14’, nor AS PUBERTY APPROACHES, THEY RECOGNIZE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BODY AND MIND.

PROD Maja Borg, Ruth Reid PROD COMP Maja Borg Filmproduktion CAM Maja Borg MUSIC Ela Orleans WITH Maja Borg SALES Filmform

PROD Christopher Stensli PROD COMP Ferdinand Film CAM Marius Kildalsen WITH Loulou Oliva Rostad Lunder, Martine Norstrøm Hammerstad SALES Ferdinand Film

Itonje Søimer Guttormsen

RETRACT RETRETT

NO, 2016, 30’, nor A MOVEMENT ARTIST MOVES BELOW THE SUCCESSFUL SURFACE OF OSLO. PROD Itonje Søimer Guttormsen PROD COMP ANDROPIA CAM Patrik Säfström MUSIC Eril Ljunggren WITH Birgitte Larsen, Marte Wexelsen Goksøyr, Andrea Bræin Hovig SALES ANDROPIA

TENN MEG PÅ

SHORT RIGA

STRANGE STRANGENESS

WHEN YOUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE STRANGE, NO ONE REMEMBERS YOUR NAME Kino Bize Saturday, 16/09 14:30 (16+)

Ico Costa

Laurynas Bareisa

NYO VWETA NAFTA

THE CAMEL

PT/MZ, 2017, 22’, por/gitonga/shitsua A JOURNEY TO MOZAMBIQUE IN ORDER TO FIND THE DEAR FRIEND NAFTA AND TO SHOOT A FILM…

LT, 2016, 14’, lit A CAMEL DIES IN THE LOCAL ZOO.

PROD João Matos, Leonor Noivo, Ico Costa PROD COMP Terratreme Filmes CAM Hugo Azevedo MUSIC Puto Zaca WITH Zacarias Covela, Domingos Marengula, Édio Peleve SALES Portugal Film

KUPRANUGARIS

PROD Klementina Remeikaite PROD COMP Afterschool CAM Martynas Norvaisas, Vytautas Katkus WITH Indre Patkauskaite, Paulius Markevicius SALES Afterschool

Jesper Dalgaard

Ieva Epnere

THE VALLEY OF GODS

POTOM

DK, 2016, 26’, eng WHEN A PHOTO IS ALL YOU CAN LEAVE IN THIS WORLD.

LV, 2016, 20’ THE FADING BEAUTY OF PAST THAT IS STILL ALIVE THIS DAY.

CAM Jesper Dalgaard MUSIC Johan Carøe SALES Jesper Dalgaard

PROD Ieva Epnere CAM Baiba Kļava, Jānis Šēnbergs MŪZIKA Edgars Rubenis WITH Ģirts Krūmiņš SALES Ieva Epnere

SHORT RIGA BALTIC MUSIC VIDEO

#BMV Kaņepes Kultūras centrs Sunday, 15/09 20:00 (16+)

28 Agnese Logina Curator – SHORT RIGA #BMV competition programme

Our music video competition is celebrating its third edition. The featured applicants from the Baltic States present increasingly courageous and powerful works. The best and brightest accomplishments include examples of successful international cooperation. We have sought out those that unify all three dimensions of a music video – music, text, and videography – and ascend to the level of a genuine masterpiece. Among the contributors – directors,

visual artists, multi-artists… – there are seasoned professionals and brave beginners. Some of the entrants have competed already in our previous editions. This year, there is a remarkable diversity of musical genres and songs in the national languages of the region. In line with the tradition, we will hold a screening with discussions in an informal atmosphere that brings together authors and aficionados, celebrating the Baltic music video community!

SHORT RIGA #BMV INTERNATIONAL JURY

Kamil Horodecki

Liisa Lahtmets

Karolis Vyšniauskas

Head of Music Video at Camerimage, the IFF of the Art of Cinematography in Poland. Organizes in-competition and out-of-competition screenings, and oversees Music Videos: The Masterclass Series.

Programme and marketing manager in Tallinn’s Kultuuriklubi Kelm. Introduces new tunes from Latvia and Lithuania at Raadio 2 and is the City Stage programme manager at Tallinn Music Week.

Journalist covering music and culture for DELFI.lt, Deutsche Welle and other news outlets. Co-founder of Lithuanian music video competition at Vilnius Film Festival Kino Pavasaris.

Uģis Olte

Nadja Sayej

Rearranger of pictures and sounds who likes to play, loves fairy tales and logic of dreams. A Latvian journalist who has transformed into a self-taught film director. Makes films and content for the TV box.

Berlin-based Canadian journalist covering art, culture, music and celebrities for The Guardian, VICE, Harper’s Bazaar and The New York Times. She is also a rapper named Snowe White.

SHORT RIGA

FESTIVAL DARLINGS Kino Bize Wednesday, 13/09 18:30 (16+)

Fresh bounty from the sea of short films, caught during the most important film events of 2016 and 2017. A handful of successful short films travels the world every year. Five distinctive pieces from this range that show the prevailing trends in the short format over the last two years.

PT/FR/GB, 2016, 7’ Sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s Princess X – a futuristic bronze phallus instead of a bust of Napoleon’s relative, Marie Bonaparte.

Renata Gąsiorowska

PUSSY CIPKA

PL, 2016, 8’ A young girl spends an evening at home alone…

PROD Gabriel Abrantes, Justin Taurand, Benjamin Cook PROD COMP Hermaphrodite Films, Les Films du Bélier, LUX/ ICO CAM Jorge Quintela WITH Joana Barrios, Francisco Cipriano, Filipe Vargas SALES AGENCIA Portuguese Short Film Agency

PROD Marcin Malatyński PROD COMP Polish National Film School in Łódź MUSIC Vlodymyr Antoniv SALES Studio Filmowe Indeks, KFF Sales&Promotion Paulina Ziolkowska

OH MOTHER! O MATKO!

Adrian Silisteanu

WRITTEN/UNWRITTEN SCRIS/NESCRIS

RO, 2016, 19’ Because of ID issues, a man risks the authorities separating him from his underage daughter, who has just had a baby.

PL, 2017, 12’15” Short story about a mother, her son and their relationship. Who is the grown-up here? What does it mean to be a grown-up? PROD Piotr Furmankiewicz, Mateusz Michalak PROD COMP FUMI Studio CAM Joanna Dudek MUSIC Tomasz Opalka SALES FUMI Studio

PROD Anamaria Antoci, Adrian Silisteanu PROD COMP 4 Proof Film CAM Adrian Silisteanu MUSIC Sergiu Popa WITH Sorin Mihai, Alina Serban, Elena Ursaru SALES Interfilm Berlin Matthias Müller, Christoph Girardet

PERSONNE DE, 2016, 8’ This is somebody, nobody, anyone. This is us in the course of time…

Gabriel Abrantes

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PRINCESS X

PROD Christoph Girardet, Matthias Müller WITH Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Jean-Louis Trintignant SALES Lightcone

IN KINO VERITAS

B category movies have earned a disparaging reputation. But not for nothing the B-movie has become an unofficial brandname for films that are bold enough to impudently violate different â&#x20AC;&#x153;classic filmmakingâ&#x20AC;? principles, often balancing on the verge of good taste, and give new blood to a rather wilted branch of the cinema. The B-movie makers feel the pressure of their financial backers considerably less, and it opens up vast possibilities for creative discoveries.

There is no doubt that film history is full of incredibly weak and horrible examples of B-movies that nevertheless are being arranged in different top charts. However, the programme IN KINO VERITAS offers a selection of classic B-movies that belong to the territory of arthouse cinema. Outstanding, even cult directors have managed to utilize arguable plots brilliantly and working with a tight budget have created bold, witty and striking films without which the overall film scene would be incomplete.

Sonora Broka Curator – IN KINO VERITAS

B-movie tentacles have finally reached IN KINO VERITAS, too! Best of all the character of B-movies comes out in posters – expressive, garish, and sometimes shocking. With time, B-films have developed from low budget productions to films with a rather defined plot, cinematic and aesthetic palette. Monsters emer-

ging from the sea, killer tomatoes, all kinds of aggressive insects next to cowboys and revengeful fatal beauties in the so-called exploitation or sexploitation films. B-movies have inspired Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. And will surely inspire the audience of Riga IFF!

Aik Karapetian Film director, guest curator of IN KINO VERITAS For the first time on the big screen in Riga, viewers will be able to see Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in a classic Hollywood horror, a Japanese black and white B category yakuza drama that refreshed the gangster movie genre, the first Latvian horror film, a French poetic thriller,

and cult director John Waters’ American pop avant-garde. Not only does each of these films has an important place in world film history, but they also remind all filmmakers – be brave and don’t fear mistakes, because they can become an inherent part your style!

Seijun Suzuki

Georges Franju

BRANDED TO KILL

EYES WITHOUT A FACE

JP, 1967, 92’, jpn

FR/IT, 1960, 90’, fra

CHKK... PSH, PSH... TINNG! SWOOSH!

WHILE LOOKING INTO HER EYES, THEY LONG TO SEE HER FACE…

The director wanted the black-and-white yakuza movie to be as entertaining as possible and made a surreal stew consisting of the following ingredients: contract killers, erotic attraction, macho rivalry, fetish for the smell of boiling rice, an appearance of a butterfly at the wrong time, obsession with death... The film quickly developed a serious cult status even though the studio Nikkatsu had short-sightedly considered it to be the last drop in the sea of films without any sense or box office potential, therefore the defiant director was fired. Suzuki dared to sue the studio and was blacklisted for many years.

Plastic surgeon Dr. Génessier does everything in his power to reconstruct the face of his beloved daughter after a car crash he caused… Visually beautiful and chillingly dispassionate reminder that cruelty and atrocities are a part of human nature – it is nothing exceptional in desperate situations. In Paris, the first spectators of this poetic horror film with music by Maurice Jarre were dropping like flies. The film has been quoted and interpreted in many cinematographic pieces. It inspired Billy Idol to compose the song Eyes Without Face. Meanwhile, the greatest achievement of the film’s director is the foundation of the Cinémathèque Française together with the legendary Henri Langlois.

KOROSHI NO RAKUIN

PROD Kaneo Iwai, Takiko Mizunoe PROD COMP Nikkatsu CAM Kazue Nagatsuka MUSIC Naozumi Yamamoto WITH Joe Shishido, Mariko Ogawa, Annu Mari SALES Nikkatsu K.Suns Friday, 15/09 18:30 (16+)

LES YEUX SANS VISAGE

PROD Jules Borkon PROD COMP Champs- Élysées Productions, Lux Film CAM Eugen Schüfftan MUSIC Maurice Jarre WITH Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Édith Scob SALES Institut français de Lettonie K.Suns Saturday, 16/09 18:30 (16+)

Edgar G. Ulmer

John Waters

THE BLACK CAT

MULTIPLE MANIACS

US, 1934, 65’, eng/hun/lat

US, 1970, 97’, eng

MEOW... AAAH!

MANIACS! MANIACS! MANIACS!

THE BLACK CAT

Newlyweds go on a honeymoon to Hunga- Lady Divine and her troupe hold free shows ry. Thanks to a man they meet on the train called The Cavalcade of Perversion, the most Budapest–Visegrad they end up in a darkly extreme and truthful exhibits of acts of obpoetic yet creepy castle where it turns out scenities. However, the finale is always the that their traveling companion has an old same – the audience is robbed and the perscore to settle with the master of the house... formers fly the coop. Life and death is but a game for those whose Even the notorious director (Pink Flamingos, souls have been slain by the self-destruction 1972) admits that he has gone a little too far of Europe. with this grotesque tale of betrayal, revenge, Two legendary stars of the early horror perversions, depravity, violence, and blood movies – Bela Lugosi (Dracula, 1931) and lust. At the time, he mocked the hippie phiBoris Karloff (Frankenstein, 1931) – meet losophy the same way as he mocks political for the first time in this film. Director Edgar correctness now. And it is up to the audience G. Ulmer has created a visually elegant hor- to decide if they want to turn away in disror story, interwoven with satanic sadism, gust, admire the extraordinary film or see a finding inspiration in the works by Edgar prophetic message of maniacs multiplying in Allan Poe and occultist Aleister Crowley. the world. PROD Carl Laemmle Jr., E.M. Asher PROD COMP Universal Pictures CAM John J. Mescall MUSIC Heinz Roemheld WITH Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners SALES Park Circus K.Suns Sunday, 17/09 18:30

PROD John Waters PROD COMP Dreamland CAM John Waters MUSIC George S. Clinton WITH Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce SALES Park Circus K.Suns Thursday, 14/09 18:30 (16+)

Vasili Mass

THE SPIDER ZIRNEKLIS

LV, 1992, 97’, lav UNCONSCIOUS SEXUAL DESIRES ARE MOST CLOSELY LINKED WITH FEAR… Painter Alberts has chosen the beautiful Vita as a model for his portrait of Virgin Mary. After the first sittings for the artist, the young woman starts seeing strange dreams where she is chased by a horrifying spider. Unconscious sexual desires create a sense of fear and helplessness until the light of true love dispel the mystic webs. The first and for the time being only erotic horror film in the film history of Latvia based on a story by Vladimirs Kaijaks. This is the only film directed by professional production designer Vasili Mass (Limousine in the Colour of Midsummer’s Eve, 1981 / A Photo of a Woman and Wild Boar, 1987 / Days of Man, 1989) and the screen debut of actress Aurēlija Anužīte (The Mystery of the Old Parish House, 2000). PROD Dekrim CAM Gvido Skulte MUSIC Mārtiņš Brauns WITH Aurēlija Anužīte, Liubomiras Laucevičius, Mirdza Martinsone, Saulius Balandis SALES AKKA/ LAA K.Suns Tuesday, 12/09 20:00 (16+)

WORLD DOCUMENTARY FILM PROGRAMME

ARDOCFEST/RIGA

Now for the fourth year, Russiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most significant and ambitious documentary auteur festival, Artdocfest, which is politically independent and does not receive state funding, is presenting a documentary film programme under the umbrella of Riga IFF, ARTDOCFEST/ RIGA. It is oriented towards fundamental notions: freedom of speech and creative freedom. All of the films shown are Latvian premieres. This programme does not only offer an artistically valuable range of films but also a platform for meetings,

coming to understandings, education and heated debate for industry professionals, politicians, media representatives, and all those who are interested. Two out of four roundtable discussions prepared for this year will be available to watch live on lsm. lv as well as in person. After each film screening, the public will have the chance to discuss the film with its authors; at the end of the programme, an Audience Choice award will be presented having been voted on by the ARTDOCFEST/ RIGA Facebook group.

40 Vitaly Mansky Curator – ARTDOCFEST/RIGA, president of Artdocfest ARTDOCFEST/RIGA is a meeting with striking documentaries followed by open discussions. This year, our selection is especially diverse – both in terms of topics and in terms of creative presentation. Each of the eleven films presents a very special, unique worldview. They vary from classics to provocative avant-garde. Each is a great starting point for round-table discussions, which traditionally are

open to all those interested. In addition, a public pitch session of independent projects produced in the countries of former USSR will be organized in partnership with the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries, so dozens of documentary filmmakers and other industry professionals from numerous countries will come to Riga. You won’t get bored!

Vera Krichevskaya

Askold Kurov

THE MAN WHO WAS TOO FREE

THE TRIAL: THE STATE OF RUSSIA VS OLEG SENTSOV

СЛИШКОМ СВОБОДНЫЙ ЧЕЛОВЕК

ПРОЦЕСС

RU/GB/DE, 2016, 126’, ru

EE/PL/CZ, 2017, 75’, ru/ukr/eng

The story of Boris Nemtsov reads like the history of Russia of the past 25 years. This history starts in the 1990s when Nemtsov was seen as the future president of the country and ends in February of 2015 when he was assassinated on Moskvoretsky Bridge, near the Moscow Kremlin, for being part of the political opposition and street protests. Nemtsov is the only Russian politician to have left a significant mark in both eras – the 1990s, with their free press, political struggles and low oil prices, and the 2000s, in the times of stability, economic growth, censorship and the decline of political competition.

Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker, was arrested by the Russian security service and charged with planned terrorist attacks. After over a year in custody, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Director of this film follows the progress of the trial and the attempts of Oleg’s family, friends and lawyers to save him from prison. The notorious case inspired protests around the world: the European Film Academy and many renowned filmmakers such as Pedro Almodovar, Wim Wenders, Agnieszka Holland, Ken Loach and others called for Oleg’s release. Kurov’s investigation gradually reveals an absurd and frightening Kafkaesque story about how anyone can become a victim of a ruthless state machine.

PROD Yevgeny Gindilis, Vera Krichevskaya, Mikhail Fishman, Simone Baumann PROD COMP TVINDIE Film Production, ZIMIN Foundation MUSIC Andrey Makarevich SALES TVINDIE Film Production Splendid Palace Large hall Saturday, 09/09 20:30

PROD Max Tuula, Maria Gavrilova, Dariusz Jabłoński, Izabela Wójcik, Violetta Kamińska CAM Askold Kurov MUSIC Sorin Apostol SALES Marx Film Splendid Palace Small hall Sunday, 10/09 20:30

Darya Khrenova

Andrey Kachalian

PAVLENSKY. LIFE NAKED

ACADEMY

ГОЛАЯ ЖИЗНЬ

АКАДЕМИЯ

LV/RU, 2016, 71’, ru

RU, 2015, 24’, ru/eng

Petr Pavlensky is currently the most radical artist in Russia, his bloody and challenging performances are mutilating his own body – he saws up his lips, naked wraps himself in barbed wire by the prosecutor’s office, nails his genitalia in the Red Square – he takes down the border between life and art.

A short review of one day in the life of young artists from different countries, students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Documentary episodes are interspersed with scenes that mimic everyday life and with the excerpts from the work by Sabina Spielrein, the first female psychoanalyst. What happens to life when nothing is happening, and what is the motivation of young artists, but already not so young people, to make art? The work continues the theme of the video Interview (2013), in which the author asked this questions to himself.

PROD Darya Khrenova, Guntis Trekteris, Vlad Ketkovich, Alexandra Zhukova CAM Darya Khrenova, Alexandra Ivanova SALES Studio Magic Mountain Splendid Palace Small hall Tuesday, 12/09 20:30 (18+)

PROD/CAM/SALES Andrey Kachalian Splendid Palace Small hall Monday, 11/09 18:00 (18+)

Yuri Manusov

Alisa Erokhina

REHEARSAL OF BOCCACCIO

RABBITS IN THE HEADLIGHTS

РЕПЕТИЦИЯ БОККАЧЧО

КРОЛИКИ В СВЕТЕ ФАР

RU, 2016, 24’, ru

RU, 2016, 44’, ru

In the provincial theatre, there is a rehearsal of the staging of Decameron by Boccaccio. The actress cannot cope with the role. The director is going to a risky experiment which inflicts a deep psychological trauma on the actress, but, in the end, achieves the desired result.

In a province small town, a road junction is being built. It hangs over the buildings and the people. Two young girls, schoolmates, make a video blog about it while hoping to move out of this place forever. This is a story of their friendship, of being so close that you lose yourself.

PROD/CAM/SALES Yuri Manusov

PROD Alisa Erokhina CAM Egor Sevastianov SALES Alisa Erokhina

Splendid Palace Small hall Monday, 11/09 18:00 (18+)

Serhiy Bukovsky

Elena Volochine, James Keogh

THE LEADING ROLE

OLEG’S CHOICE

UA, 2016, 63’, ru

FR/UA, 2016, 75’, ru

A very personal story. Funny and sad. It’s about a mother. It’s about an actress. It’s about a filmmaker’s wife. About a family where life and films were inseparable, and where those involved often mistook the alternate reality for real life. About dependency and newfound freedom… About new roles and new hopes… About the fate… of the director’s mother – Nina Antonova.

Since the summer of 2014, thousands of young Russians poured into the Donbass region of Ukraine to fight on the separatists’ side. Among the first wave of volunteers were Oleg and Max. Oleg was appointed deputy commander of a battalion, while Max became a soldier. Their illusions were shattered on the night of June 3rd, 2015, when a battle went horribly wrong. While Oleg and Max continue to fight on the ground, they must also fight creeping doubts that they have ended up on the wrong side of the war.

ГЛАВНАЯ РОЛЬ

PROD Maxym Asadchyy CAM Anatoliy Khymych, Serhiy Bukovsky SALES Ukrainian State Film Agency, Pronto Film Splendid Palace Small hall Tuesday, 12/09 18:00

LE CHOIX D’OLEG

PROD Valérie Montmartin PROD COMP Little Big Story CAM Elena Volochine, James Keogh SALES Valérie Montmartin, Little Big Story Splendid Palace Small hall Wednesday, 13/09 20:30 (18+)

Dmitrii Kalashnikov

Audrius Stonys

THE ROAD MOVIE

WOMAN AND THE GLACIER

ДОРОГА

MOTERIS IR LEDYNAS

BY/RU/BA, 2016, 60’, ru

LT/EE, 2016, 56’, lit

Super-objective dashboardcam videos grow into a strong image of Russian national character with its permanent awaiting for the miracle and habitual approach to real dramas. Everything can happen on Russian roads. Everything can happen on the road of life.

The Lithuanian scientist Aušra Revutaite has spent 30 years in the Tian Shan mountain range in Central Asia. Some 3,500 meters above sea level she studies climate change on the Tuyuksu Glacier at an old Soviet-era research station. She loves the silence that her painstaking work brings her. A cinematic ode to the grandeur of nature, the mystery of science and the secrecy of self-imposed solitude.

PROD Volya Chaikovskaya CAM Dmitrii Kalashnikov SALES Volia Films Splendid Palace Small hall Monday, 11/09 20:30

PROD Radvile Sumile, Riho Vastrik PROD COMP Studio UKU CAM Audrius Kemezys MUSIC Robert Jurjendal SALES Studio UKU Splendid Palace Small hall Thursday, 14/09 20:30

Yulia Bobkova

THE LAST WALTZ ПОСЛЕДНИЙ ВАЛЬС

RU, 2017, 78’, ru Oleg Karavaichuk, eccentric musical genius and famous composer, takes his final stroll through Komarovo, a bay-side summer community just outside St. Petersburg, where he spent his whole life and wrote most of his works. His final piece, The Komarovo Waltz, unveiled here for the very first time, was written as a tribute to the place. The film is the reclusive composer’s farewell, his last address and reminder of things that are truly important – love for your fellow man and virgin nature. PROD Stanislav Ershov, Sergey Shumakov PROD COMP Studio Ostrov, Kino&Teatr Foundation CAM Sergey Lando, Alexander Filippov, Maria Evteeva, Andrey Ananin MUSIC Oleg Karavaychuk Kino Bize Sunday, 10/09 18:30

NORDIC HIGHLIGHTS

A panorama of cinema that reveals the unique Nordic signature style in creating films, telling stories, making art and music. To some, this seems exotic, to others it feels cosy, but these films always pluck a strongly resonant string within each of us. The North is a lot closer than one might think! The Nordic countries are celebrating two hundredth anniversaries this year – one hundred years since Finland gained independence and one hundred years since the first Sami congress. NORDIC HIGHLIGHTS is also celebrating – with

Finnish auteur and living legend Aki Kaurismäki’s award-winning film The Other Side of Hope and new Swedish director Amanda Kernell’s debut film Sami Blood, a tale based on the director’s Grandmother’s memories of some dark pages in Sami history. The Nordic film programme has been elaborated in cooperation with the Embassies of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, as well as the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Latvia and the Danish Cultural Institute in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Kersti Grunditz Brennan, Maud Nycander, Jannike Åhlund

CITIZEN SCHEIN

Bent Hamer

1001 GRAMS 1001 GRAM

SE, 2017, 100’, swe

NO/DE/FR, 2014, 90’, eng/nor

Power, masculinity, great success, deep tragedy, and myths. Harry Schein, the founder of the Swedish Film Institute, was one of the most influential cultural and media personalities in Sweden of the 60s and 70s. Millionaire, intellectual and playboy. This documentary is about an Austrian war refugee who ended up counting Ingmar Bergman and Olof Palme among his best friends. His yearning for change and fame demanded sacrifices. But Harry had nothing to lose. He had already lost everything – his family and his trust in others… Among the interviewees are director Roy Andersson, legendary actresses Harriet Andersson and Liv Ullmann, Daniel Bergman, Ingmar Bergman’s son, Mårten Palme, Olof Palme’s son and many others.

Life’s heaviest burden is to have nothing to carry. The film is based on movement by a closed mind. When Norwegian scientist Marie attends a seminar in Paris on the actual weight of a kilo, it is her own measurement of disappointment, grief and, not least, love, that ends up on the scale. Marie is forced to come to terms with how much a human life truly weighs and which measurements she intends to live by. The director Bent Hammer saw here an opportunity to further develop the type of poetic humor he used in Kitchen Stories (2003).

PROD Gila Bergqvist, Rebecka Hamberger, Lisa Widén PROD COMP Breidablick Film AB CAM Anders Bohman, Lukas Eisenhauer, Maud Nycander, Robert Oberrainer, Marek Wieser MUSIC Karl Frid, Pär Frid WITH Eli Ingvarsson, Kerstin Gandler, Maud Nycander SALES Breidablick Film Splendid Palace Large hall Saturday, 09/09 18:00

PROD Bent Hamer, Christoph Friedel, Marianne Slot PROD COMP Bulbul Films CAM John Christian Rosenlund MUSIC John Erik Kaada WITH Ane Dahl Torp, Laurent Stocker, Didier Flamand SALES Les Films Du Losange Splendid Palace Small hall Monday, 11/09 16:00 Kino Bize Wednesday, 13/09 20:30

Hannes Holm

A MAN CALLED OVE

Pernilla August

A SERIOUS GAME

EN MAN SOM HETER OVE

DEN ALLVARSAMMA LEKEN

SE, 2015, 116’, swe/per

SE/NO/DK, 2015, 120’, swe/nor/dan

Stepping from the pages of Fredrik Back- A story of a young couple, the journalist Arvid man’s international best-selling novel, Ove is Stjärnblom and Lydia Stille, who fall madly the quintessential angry old man next door. in love. They are both drawn to the dream An isolated retiree with strict principles and of pure, great, and untainted love. Yet, the a short fuse, who spends his days enforcing dream demands greater sacrifice than they block association rules that only he cares could ever imagine. A passionate and fiery about, and visiting his wife’s grave, Ove has love story about the choices we have, the given up on life. However, an unlikely friend- ones we don´t, the choices we make and the ship develops with his boisterous new neighconsequences that follow. bors… What emerges is a heartwarming tale This is an adaptation of Hjalmar Söderberg’s of unreliable first impressions and the gentle novel The Serious Game (1912) by the Swereminder that life is sweeter when it is shared. dish actress-turned-director Pernilla August whose creative life was previously closely PROD Annica Bellander PROD COMP Tre linked with Ingmar Bergman and Bille August. Vänner Produktion AB CAM Göran Hallberg MUSIC Gaute Storaas WITH Rolf Lassgård, PROD Patrick Andersson, Frida Bargo, Bahar Pars, Filip Berg SALES Trustnordisk Fredrik Heinig PROD COMP B-Reel Films CAM Erik Mollberg Hansen Splendid Palace Small hall MUSIC Matti Bye WITH Sverrir GudSaturday, 09/09 20:30 nason, Karin Franz Körlöf, Liv Mjönes, Splendid Palace Large hall Michael Nyqvist SALES Trustnordisk Saturday, 16/09 14:00 Splendid Palace Large hall Friday, 15/09 16:30

Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson

Katja Gauriloff

HEARTSTONE

KAISA’S ENCHANTED FOREST

HJARTASTEINN

KUUN METSÄN KAISA

IS/DK, 2016, 129’, ice

FI, 2016, 82’, fin/fra/eng/ger/sms

A personal story based on the director’s ex- The legends, myths, and destiny of the Skolt perience growing up in a small fishing village. Sámi. Swiss writer Robert Crottet followed an Two teenage boys experience a turbulent enigmatic call he heard in a dream and went summer. A story of brotherhood, self-accep- to Lapland in the 1930s. He was welcomed by tance, strength, and the importance of family. the indigenous people of the Kola Peninsula The village in Iceland is an environment full and formed a friendship with Kaisa – storyof contrasts, where the sun shines without teller, seeress, and singer of epic ballads. He rest during the summer and barely rises at continued to be a part of her life until the all in winter. A place where the same things 70s. A couple of years ago, the filmmaker you love and give you freedom also tie you Katja Gauriloff, Kaisa’s great-granddaughdown. A place to discover how nature and ter, obtained the unique footage filmed by people can be both amazingly beautiful and Robert Crottet and his partner – incredibly cruel. photographer Enrique Méndez. This poetic documentary tells about the enormous PROD Anton Máni Svansson, Lise spiritual wealth of people who were forced Orheim Stender, Jesper Morthorst, out of their ancestral homes… Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson PROD COMP SF Studios Production & PROD Joonas Berghäll, Satu Majava, Join Motion Picture CAM Sturla Brandth Tatiana Chistova PROD COMP Grøvlen MUSIC Kristian Eidnes Andersen Oktober Oy CAM Heikki Färm, Enrique WITH Baldur Einarsson, Blær Hinriksson, Méndez MUSIC Timo Peltola WITH Diljá Valsdóttir SALES Films Boutique Kaisa Gauriloff, Robert Crottet, Mohandas K. Gandhi SALES Oktober Oy Splendid Palace Large hall Sunday, 17/09 14:00 Splendid Palace Small hall Sunday, 17/09 13:30

Anne Regitze Wizel

Tūra Mortensa

MAN FALLING

MARTHA & NIKI

DK, 2015, 107’, eng/dan

SE, 2016, 90’, swe/eng

It was the spring of 2013 when the old friend of the filmmaker Anne Regitze Wivel fell down his stairs and got a severe injury. This man is Per Kirkeby – the world-renowned Danish painter, poet, essayist, sculptor, graphic artist, and filmmaker. Not only has he lost his physical mobility, but also his ability to recognize colours, faces and even his own artwork. He struggles to return to his work while at the same time acknowledging his lack of progress. A story about the artist’s universe – marked by deep melancholy as well as astounding beauty; a story about a personal struggle, illusions and the meaning of life.

In 2010, Martha Nabwire and Niki Tsappos took part in the biggest international Street Dance Competition, Juste Debout in Paris. It was the first time ever two women became World Champions in Hip Hop. Both are born in Africa and live in Sweden, yet one of them was adopted by a Swedish family as a baby while the other only arrived in Europe at the age of 14. This film, shot during a 5-year period in numerous cities across the globe, depicts their love of dance – something they treat with pure honesty and that comes across in each and every move. A brilliant documentary about identity and finding the right path in life.

PROD/CAM Sigrid Jonsson Dyekjaer PROD COMP Danish Documentary Production MUSIC Thomas Jäger, Kristian Eidnes Andersen WITH Per Kirkeby, Mari Anne Duus Jørgensen SALES Wide House

PROD Tora Mårtens, Patrik Axén, Kalle Bäccman PROD COMP Neo Publishing AB CAM Erik Vallsten, Niklas Nyberg, Senay Berhe MUSIC Kalle Bäccman WITH Martha Nabwire, Nikki Tsaposs SALES SFI

Kino Bize Monday, 11/09 18:30

Kino Bize Tuesday, 12/09 18:30

MAND FALDER

Amanda Kernell

Aki Kaurismäki

SAMI BLOOD

THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE

SE/DK/NO, 2016, 110’, swe/sma

FI, 2016, 98’, eng/ara/fin/swe

Southern Sami yoiks and blood. What happens to you if you cut all ties with your culture? Can you really become someone else? In the 1930s, Ella-Marja was sent to a boarding school for Sami children where they were taught to know their place, scientists from the State Institute for Racial Biology came to measure and photograph them naked, and speaking Sami, even just among themselves, resulted in beatings. In present day, she calls herself Christina and visits Lapland… This is the director’s declaration of love to those who left and stayed, a film about the dark pages of the Swedish history.

Finnish writer-director continues his trilogy on refugees, which started with the awardwinning tragicomedy Le Havre (2011). It is dedicated to film historian Peter von Bagh, the director of the Midnight Sun Film Festival, which the Kaurismäki brothers founded in 1986. When the authorities decline his claim for refugee status and make a decision to return the Syrian Khaled (Sherwan Haji) to the ruins of Aleppo, he decides to stay illegally in the country and disappears into the streets of Helsinki. There he meets, besides various types of racism, also pure kindness. A Finn Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen) finds him in the inner yard of his restaurant. For a moment life shows its sunnier side, but fate soon intervenes…

SAMEBLOD

PROD Lars G Lindström PROD COMP Nordisk Film Production Sverige AB CAM Sophia Olsson, Petrus Sjövik MUSIC Kristian Eidnes Andersen WITH Lene Cecilia Sparrok, Mia Erika Sparrok, Maj-Doris Rimpi SALES SFI Splendid Palace Large hall Sunday, 10/09 14:00 Splendid Palace Small hall Sunday, 17/09 18:00

TOIVON TUOLLA PUOLEN

PROD Aki Kaurismäki, Reinhard Brundig, Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff PROD COMP Sputnik Oy CAM Timo Salminen WITH Sherwan Haji, Sakari Kuosmanen, Janne Hyytiäinen SALES Must Käsi Splendid Palace Large hall Sunday, 17/09 16:30

Cecilie Debell

Eskil Vogt

MY MOTHER IS PINK

BLIND

DK, 2017, 75’, dan

NO/NL, 2014, 95’, nor

MIN MOR ER PINK

Cecilie Debell, making her debut as a director, Eskil Vogt’s feature debut stars Ellen Dorrit reveals a deeply unusual and highly surprising Petersen as Ingrid, who has recently lost her family story – a hardcore adventure. It is just sight. She retreats to the safety of her home, as serious as any look back at a childhood alone with her husband and her thoughts, but characterised by failure, loss, and chaos, her deepest fears and repressed fantasies however moving, funny and almost disarming- soon take over. Ingrid no longer cares about ly vibrant. How to come to terms with the pain- what is real if she can manage to visualize it. ful things in one’s life? Who are our parents as The director hopes that the story will tell a people? How did they turn us into the people lot of different things about human beings, we are? A cinematic epistle about tolerance in especially about their inner selves – all the an age that sorely needs it. strange, shameful, imaginative thoughts we The performance artist Michael Richardt all have, but which we often have a hard time invites his mother to join him on a road trip. sharing with others. Vogt and his team have The encounters with old friends and sympa- a visual language that exists somewhere thetic strangers give both mother and son between reality and dream. This film just something they were missing… refuses to fade away in memory. PROD Heidi Kim Andersen, Wenche Hugaas Jensen CAM Sebastian Danneborn WITH Michael Richardt, Malou Gabriella SALES Metronome Productions K.Suns Sunday, 16/09 16:30 (12+)

PROD Sigve Endresen, Hans-Jørgen Osnes PROD COMP Motlys AS, Lemming Film CAM Thimios Bakatakis MUSIC Henk Hofstede WITH Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Vera Vitali, Henrik Rafaelsen SALES NFI Kino Bize Tuesday, 12/09 20:30 (16+)

KIDS WEEKEND

54 Kristīne Simsone Curator – KIDS WEEKEND Watching films at a film festival means to experience them. To eat up the latest films from all over the world together with an interested and curious audience or on the contrary – enjoy carefully chosen evergreen classics. To expand one’s horizon and see the world through eyes of other people. The festival team is convinced that this experience has to be accessible for everyone, including the youngest generation of filmgoers. Films screened at the

Riga IFF KIDS WEEKEND have become the first cinema experience for many children at a very early age. It is both a huge compliment and responsibility for the festival to see that this experience consists of the best possible films and that the generation that grows together with Riga IFF grows up to be intelligent and demanding audience that is used to fine cinema and have great memories of their childhood cinema experience.

Meikeminne Clinckspoor

Emelie Lindblom

CLOUDBOY

ROOM 213

BE/SE/NO/NL, 2017, 75’, nl/swe

SE, 2017, 95’, swe

CITYBOY IN LAPLAND.

SUMMER CAMP TURNS INTO A SPOOKY PLACE.

Niilas, 12, has been living with his father in the Netherlands. But this summer, Niilas has to travel to the North of Sweden to meet his mother he barely remembers. He is faced with an intriguing and emotional reunion and getting acquainted both with her mother’s new family and the magnificent Northern nature. At first, the unfamiliar surroundings scare Niilas, but as soon as he has overcome his fear, this becomes the most adventurous summer of his life.

Elvira, Meja and Bea go on a summer camp after the 6th grade. The three girls are to stay in room 213 – where no one has lived for more than half a century. Soon inexplicable events start to happen: girls’ belongings go missing, a cryptic letter written in an ancient handwriting appears. Is the legend about the camp’s ghost really true?

PROD Katleen Goossens, Olle Wirenhed, Sabine Veenendaal PROD COMP Bulletproof Cupid, Götafilm, Storyline NOR, Submarine CAM Christian Paulussen MUSIC Helge Slikker WITH Geert Van Rampelberg, Mikkel Gaup, Sara Sommerfeld SALES LevelK Splendid Palace Small hall Sunday, 10/09 13:30 (7+)

RUM 213

PROD Martin Jern, Emil Larsson PROD COMP Dansk Skalle CAM Emil Klang MUSIC Hans Lundgren WITH Wilma Lundgren, Ella Fogelström, Elena Hovsepyan SALES Media Luna Splendid Palace Small hall Saturday, 09/09 16:00 (9+)

Arunas Zebriunas

Nicole van Kilsdonk

THE BEAUTY

THE DAY MY FATHER BECAME A BUSH

GRAŽUOLĖ

TOEN MIJN VADER EEN STRUIK WERD

LT, 1969, 71’, lit

NL/BE/HR, 2016, 89’, nl

SHOULD YOU ALWAYS TRUST YOUR CLASSMATES?

THE BRAVES ONES DON’T GET SCARED, THEY GET ADVENTURES!

This film belongs to Lithuanian cinema clas- Toda, 10, lives in a bakery with her dad, the sics. The classmates of nine-year-old Inga call best pastry chef in town. She knows everyher “Beauty Queen”. Their attitude changes thing there is to know about cakes and pasas soon as one boy states that she is actually tries. But one day, everything changes: her ugly. The children are not aware of how hurt dad is called away unexpectedly to defend she feels. However, just a few kind words can his country. She thinks it means becoming make a difference. a bush as soldiers have to stick branches to their helmets. Now Toda must undertake PROD COMP Lithuanian film studios an adventurous and challenging journey to CAM Algimantas Mockus the unknown neighbouring country where MUSIC Vyacheslav Ganelin WITH Inga her mother lives. She meets strange peoMickyte, Lilija Zadeikyte, Arvidas Samukas ple, encounters absurd situations and finds SALES Lithuanian film centre a special new friend. Splendid Palace Small hall Sunday, 10/09 16:00 (7+)

PROD Joost de Vries, Eva Eisenloeffel, Sinisa Juricic, Leontine Petit, Fleur Winters, Tomas Leyers, Dries Phlypo PROD COMP Lemming Film, Minds Meet, Nukleus film, A Private View CAM Gregg Telussa MUSIC Rutger Reinders WITH Celeste Holsheimer, Matsen Montsma, Anneke Blok SALES Lemming Film Splendid Palace Small hall Saturday, 09/09 13:30 (7+)

KIDS WEEKEND

ANIMATION SHORT FILM PROGRAMME Splendid Palace Large hall Saturday, 10/09 11:00 (2+)

A programme for the youngest audience selected by guest curators, Edmunds Jansons and Sabīne Andersone, authors of The Shammies. Recommended age 2+

Edmunds Jansons, Sabīne Andersone Guest curators – KIDS WEEKEND Being animation filmmakers, we watch a considerable number of the most diverse films every year. Some of them we would gladly watch together with our children. This programme consists of such films – asking to be shared. They are comic,

heartfelt, poetic, mysterious and we think that they are worth the attention of children and their parents. The festival is a wonderful opportunity to go and see films that otherwise most probably would never come to Latvia.

Natalia Chernysheva

THE GOSSAMER

Olesya Shchukina

THE SLED БЕЛЬЧОНОК И САНКИ

RU, 2016, 4’5” A MUTUAL FRIENDSHIP IS WEAVED WHEN A SMALL SPIDER FINDS INSPIRATION IN A WOMAN’S KNITTING PATTERNS. PROD Vladimir Gassiev CAM Olga Chernova, Natalia Chernysheva MUSIC Nadejda Shestakova SALES Studio Pchela

RU, 2016, 4’ BABY SQUIRREL FINDS A SLED BUT TO HAVE REAL FUN WITH IT HE HAS TO LEARN TO CONTROL IT.

PROD Gleb Davidov, Andrey Dobrunov / Soyuzmultfilm CAM Chenghua Yang, Roman Kazakov, Maria Gavrilenko, Nadya Mira, Olesya Shchukina MUSIC Lev Slepner SALES Soyuzmultfilm

Julia Ocker

Pascale Hecquet

ZEBRA

THE RUNAWAY BISCUIT

DE, 2015, 3’ WHAT HAPPENS TO ZEBRA’S STRIPES WHEN IT ACCIDENTALLY BUMPS INTO A TREE?

FR/BE, 2015, 7’45, fr THE DELICIOUS BISCUIT MAMA RABBIT MADE TURNS OUT TO BE A TRUE RASCAL AND TRICKS EVEN THE SLY FOX.

PROD Thomas Meyer-Hermann CAM Julia Ocker, Jacky De Groen, Ferdinand Engländer MUSIC Christian Heck SALES Film Bilder

PROD Arnaud Demuynck, Les Films du Nord CAM Pascale Hecquet MUSIC Alexandre Brouillard, Jessy Blondeel SALES Les Films du Nord

LA GALETTE COURT TOUJOURS

Marjolaine Perreten

Julia Ocker

NOVEMBER

OCTOPUS

NOVEMBRE

DE, 2015, 3’50” FR/CH, 2015, 4’ WHEN AUTUMN COMES TO THE RIVER SEVEN OF THE OCTOPUS’S TENTACLES BANKS, ALL ANIMALS – BIG AND SMALL – WANT TO BAKE A PEACH TART, BUT ONE ARE GETTING READY FOR WINTER. – A CHOCOLATE CAKE. WHO WILL WIN?

PROD Annick Teninge CAM Marjolaine Perreten MUSIC Serge Besset SALES Agence du Court-métrage France

PROD Thomas Meyer-Hermann PROD COMP Studio FILM BILDER CAM Jacky de Groen, Julia Ocker MUSIC Christian Heck, Sumophonic SALES Film Bilder

Marjolaine Perreten

Sandra Schießl

SUPER GRAND

DUSTY AND MOP

FR/CH, 2014, 2’

DE, 2015, 2’

A FRIENDLY GIANT TRIES TO HELP PEOPLE BUT FEAR KEEPS THEM FROM SEEING HIS GOOD DEEDS.

MOP BRINGS THE COFFEE MACHINE TO BOIL AND WONDERS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF HE ADDED A BAG OF GREEN POWDER.

PROD/CAM/MUSIC Marjolaine Perreten SALES La Poudrière

PROD COMP TRIKK17 – Animationsraum GmbH & Co. KG CAM Eliott Deshusses MUSIC Jens Fischer, Moritz Fischer SALES TRIKK17

Ana Chubinidze

Julia Ocker

THE POCKET MAN

CROCODILE

LE PETIT BONHOMME DE POCHE

DE, 2015, 3’45” FR, 2017, 7’30” A CHANCE MEETING OF A POCKET-SIZE IF YOU ARE A CROCODILE EATING MAN AND A BLIND PERSON GROWS INTO COOKIES IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP. THAN ONE WOULD THINK. PROD Reginald De Guillebon, Corinne Destombes, Nicolas Burlet, Mariam Kandelaki PROD COMP Folimage, Nadasdy Film, Kvali XXI CAM Lorelei Palies, PierreLuc Granjon, Antoine Lanciaux, Chaïtane Conversat, Christophe Gautry MUSIC Yan Volsy SALES Folimage

Maja Gehrig

QUEEN BUM KÖNIGIN PO

CH, 2015, 11’, eng IT’S BEDTIME. FATHER AND DAUGHTER MAKE UP A WORLD FLOATING HIGH ABOVE THE CLOUDS. THE QUEEN OF THIS WORLD IS CALLED PO.

PROD Ruedi Schick PROD COMP Schick Productions, SRG SSR MUSIC Kaspar König SALES Schick Productions

PROD Thomas Meyer-Hermann CAM Julia Ocker, Ferdinand Engländer, Jacky de Groen MUSIC Christian Heck SALES Film Bilder

PREMIERE OF PIGTAIL AND MR. SLEEPLESSNESS The Latvian premiere of Pigtail and Mr. Sleeplessness, the latest animated short by Edmunds Jansons and Atom Art Studio! The screening also includes Our Granny Rocks!, the latest children’s animation by Nils Skapāns.

Edmunds Jansons

PIGTAIL AND MR SLEEPLESSNESS BIZE UN NEGUĻA

LV, 2017, 25’, lav WHEN A BABY BROTHER ARRIVES IN PIGTAIL’S FAMILY SHE AND HER FRIEND MR. SLEEPLESSNESS PLOT ON HOW TO REGAIN HER PARENTS’ ATTENTION. PROD Sabīne Andersone PROD COMP Atom Art SCRIPT Lote Eglīte MUSIC Ģirts Bišs SALES Atom Art

Nils Skapāns

OUR GRANNY ROCKS MŪSU OME RULLĒ!

LV, 2017, 26’, lav BROTHER AND SISTER HAVE A HARD TIME GETTING ALONG. BUT THEN THEIR GRANNY GETS INVOLVED AND GREAT ADVENTURES BEGIN. PROD Roberts Vinovskis PROD COMP Locomotive Productions SCRIPT Nils Skapāns, Ilze Emse CAM Valdis Celmiņš SALES Locomotive Productions Productions Splendid Palace Large hall Saturday, 09/09 11:00 (5+)

HOME MADE

Films from the Baltic countries are an organic component of the contemporary cinema scene. They aim to address the audience across state borders and language barriers, but are acutely aware and proud of their origins. The programme shows the development of the cinema culture and industry in the three neighbouring countries of the region by announcing new challenges and opening up unexpected facets of strength. Co-productions or films shot in Latvia, like A Gentle Creature by Sergey Loznitsa, have also been added to the

programme this year. HOME MADE is our small welcome kit of Baltic cinema for international guests and those who, waiting for the festival, have kept their ravenous appetite for new film discoveries in check until autumn. The programme includes a film that has set the national attendance record in Latvia and a film that will have its premiere at Riga IFF. The programme where Ĺ arĹŤnas Bartas meets Jaak Kilmi and Laila PakalniĹ&#x2020;a. Why not?

Sergei Loznitsa

Viesturs Kairišs

A GENTLE CREATURE

CHRONICLES OF MELANIE

FR/DE/LT/NL, 2017, 143’, rus

LV/CZ/FI, 2016, 120’, ger/rus/lav

KROTKAYA

MELĀNIJAS HRONIKA

A woman lives alone on the outskirts of a The film is based on the life story of Melānija village in Russia. One day she receives a Vanaga, a woman who managed to survive parcel she sent to her incarcerated husband, her deportation to Siberia. It is a truthful marked ‘return to sender’. Shocked and account of the magnitude of the human spirit confused, the woman has no choice but to and the painful destinies, which were a part travel to the prison in a remote region of of the greatest tragedy facing the nation. It the country in search of an explanation. So is the story of Latvian women who had to begins the story of an absurd battle against suffer and survive physically and emotionally in this impenetrable fortress, the prison where order for Latvia to live. the forces of social evil are constantly at work. To maintain hope, to preserve a person who is Braving violence and humiliation, in the face stronger than famine, cold, cruelty and even of all opposition, our protagonist embarks death and is capable of taking on responsibion a blind quest for justice. This film is a lity for another person, to help others – such metaphor for a country where people are is the confirmation of Melānija Vanaga, her constantly violated by each other. Hypo- memories and also this film to the light in crisy, gigantic lies and double standards.. the world. PROD Maria Baker-Choustova, Marianne Slot, Gunnar Dedio, Uljana Kim, Serge Lavrenyuk, Carine Leblanc, Sergei Loznitsa, Olivier Père, Marc van Warmerdam, Peter Warnier PROD COMP Slot Machine, ARTE France Cinéma, Graniet Film BV, LOOKS Film & TV Produktionen, Solar Media Entertainment, Studio Uljana Kim, Wild at Art CAM Oleg Mutu WITH Liya Akhedzhakova, Valeriu Andriutã, Boris Kamorzin, Marina Kleshcheva SALES Wild Bunch Splendid Palace Large hall Friday, 15/09 19:00 (12+)

PROD Julietta Sichel, Klaus Heydemann, Gints Grūbe, Inese Boka-Grūbe PROD COMP Film Studio Mistrus Media CAM Gints Bērziņš MUSIC Karlis Auzans, Arturs Maskats, Aleksandrs Vaicahovskis WITH Sabine Timoteo, Guna Zariņa, Maija Doveika, Erwin Leder SALES Mistrus Media Kino Bize Sunday, 17/09 18:30

Sharunas Bartas

Uģis Olte, Morten Traavik

FROST

LIBERATION DAY

FR/LT/PO/UA, 2017, 130’, ukr/rus/lit/eng

LV/NO, 2016, 75’, eng/kor/nor

Rokas and Inga, a couple of young Lithuanians, volunteer to drive a cargo van of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Amid the violence and death of the conflict, they meet different war correspondents, one of whom is played by Vanessa Paradis. When plans change and they find themselves left to their own devices, they cross the vast snowy lands of the Donbass region in search of allies and shelter, drifting into the lives of those affected by the war. They approach the frontline in spite of the danger, all the while growing closer to each other as they begin to understand life during wartime.

Under the loving but firm guidance of an old fan turned director and cultural diplomat and to the surprise of a whole world, the ex-Yugoslavian cult band Laibach becomes the first foreign rock group ever to perform in the fortress state of North Korea. Confronting strict ideology and cultural differences, the band struggles to get their songs through the needle’s eye of censorship before they can be unleashed on an audience never before exposed to alternative rock’n’roll. Meanwhile, propaganda loudspeakers are being set up at the border between the two Koreas and a countdown to war is announced. The hills are alive… with the sound of music!

PROD Jurga DIkciuviene, Janja Kraljo, lena Yershova, Maria Blicharska, Marc Simoncini PROD COMP Studio Kinema, KinoElektron, Tato Film, Donten & Lacroix Films, Reborn Production, Arte Cofinova, KNM CAM Eitvydas Doskus MUSIC Pawel Mykietyn WITH Andrzej Chyra, Mantas Janciauskas, Lyja Maknaviciute, Vanessa Paradis SALES LUXBOX Splendid Palace Small hall Sunday, 10/09 18:00

ATBRĪVOŠANAS DIENA

PROD Uldis Cekulis, Morten Traavik, Miha Cernec PROD COMP VFS Films, TRAAVIK. INFO CAM Sven Erling Brusletto, Valdis Celmins MUSIC Laibach WITH Boris Benko, Milan Fras, Janez Gabric SALES VFS Films Kino Bize Saturday, 16/09 20:30

Jaak Kilmi

Andrius Blaževičius

THE DISSIDENTS

THE SAINT

EE, 2017, 93’, est/rus/swe/fin/eng

LT/PO, 2016, 96’, lit

The fast-paced action comedy takes us back to the 1980s. Three Estonian guys flee Soviet Union, because they want to have as awesome life in the free world as they’ve seen in TV series Miami Vice, Knight Rider and Santa Barbara. Swedes welcome friends as real heroes, who broke through the Iron Curtain. But as the media circus blows over, our dissidents discover that they’ve become nothing more than tedious immigrants. To put food on the table, they have to do something as lame as… work! But the boys are no quitters, so they come up with new crazy plans that should guarantee success in the Western world. That’s when things go totally insane!

Lithuanian provincial town is facing the economic crisis in 2008. Vytas gets fired from the factory. Pushed by his wife, he immediately starts looking for a new job, but not really successfully. After having his new haircut done, Vytas starts looking for a love affair with the hairdresser Marija, but not really successfully, either. Finally, Vytas gets involved into a third search – together with his best friend Petras he starts looking for a guy who posted video on youtube, claiming he saw Jesus Christ in their town. This is the only time Vytas succeeds...

SANGARID

PROD Kristian Taska, Jānis Kalējs PROD COMP Taska Film, Matila Röhr Productions, Film Angels Production Distributors CAM Aigars Sērmukšs MUSIC Samuli Erkkilä, Joni Suhonen WITH Märt Pius, Karl-Andreas Kalmet, Veiko Porkanen SALES ACME Film Kino Bize Sunday, 17/09 16:30

ŠVENTASIS

PROD Marija Razgutė, Marta Lewandowska, Marta Habior PROD COMP M-Films, No Sugar Films CAM Linas Dabriska MUSIC Vytautas Rasimavicius WITH Marius Repšys, Gelminė Glemžaitė, Indrė Patkauskaitė SALES M-FILMS K.Suns Friday, 15/09 16:30

Staņislavs Tokalovs

Jānis Putniņš

WHAT NOBODY CAN SEE

ONLY TRAINS REMEMBER THAT

TAS, KO VIŅI NEREDZ

TO ATCERAS TIKAI VILCIENI

LV, 2016, 100’, rus

LV, 2016, 42’, lav

A psychological drama with elements of Trains and railroad tracks are the unifying science fiction. Nurse Elza falls in love with elements in this found footage film made out her patient – a young, rich, and brilliant sci- of fragments from feature films produced in entist Nicolas. He is trapped in a coma now, Latvia from 1958 to 1989. It’s a cinematic but previously he was experimenting with journey into the world of dreams, filled with artificial intelligence. The recovery will take memories, desires, and the incessant quest a long time and it’s not easy for both charfor the ever-elusive happiness. acters to build a mutual trust. Things are The trains have played an important role in getting really complicated as the scientist’s the history of cinema. A lot of interesting invention – artificial intelligence Anna – phenomena are linked with trains – locomanages to wilfully interfere in the motion, changes, an opportunity to think, relationship of the man and woman. dynamics, force, sense of something important… It helps to cross the usual boundaries. PROD Guntis Trekteris PROD COMP Ego Media CAM Denis Sorogin MUSIC Nathan PROD/SALES Camera Obscura W Klein WITH Katerina Shpitsa, Evgeniy Tkachuk, Andris Keišs SALES Ego Media K.Suns Sunday, 17/09 16:30 Kino Bize Saturday, 16/09 18:30

Laila Pakalniņa

WATERFALL RUMBA

LV, 2016, 20’, lav

Waterfall and I, and – no, the other way around! This film is, of course, about nature – human nature. Or – what a human can do with the widest waterfall in Europe. “I feel as if I had exclusive rights to this place, because I grew up ‘framing’ it—I was too small to see the waterfall over the railings of Kuldīga Bridge and so I spent lots of time with my head stuck through the lower gaps in the railings. I have been convinced since then that it is not enough for anyone just to look at the waterfall. For instance, I wished to shoot a film there and others also have all kinds of waterfall-related wishes. My film is about wish fulfilment,” says the director Laila Pakalniņa. PROD Laila Pakalniņa PROD COMP Hargla Company CAM Uldis Jancis SALES Hargla Company K.Suns Sunday, 17/09 16:30

BEAST

The East European cinema traditions are surprisingly powerful, innovative and viable. The emergence of the Romanian New Wave confirmed it once again in early 2000s. Cristian Mungiu, one of its leading directors, proved that the aesthetics of the movement he represents does not grow out-of-date, by winning the Best Director award with his film Graduation at Cannes Film Festival last year. Recently also Hungarian director László Nemes received high acclaim – the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award for the overwhelming portrayal of the Holocaust in his fea-

ture film debut Son of Saul. And in the beginning of this year, the name of Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi became a buzz. Her film On Body and Soul – a love story of two slaughterhouse employees – stirred the Berlin Film Festival. A little later Slovak director György Kristóf received recognition with his feature length debut Out, also filmed in Latvia, that was included in the Un Certain Regard programme of the Cannes Film Festival. The programme BEAST opens a curtain to the most brilliant and exciting artistic endeavours in the East European cinema.

Virág Zomborácz

Michał Marczak

AFTERLIFE

ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

UTÓÉLET

WSZYSTKIE NIEPRZESPANE NOCE

HU, 2014, 100’, fra/hun

PO, 2016, 90’, pol

Virág Zomborácz’ first feature film. Its screen- The idea for this movie arose out of the play was her graduation project from the director’s thought that came to him one cold University of Theatre and Film Arts in Bu- morning in Warsaw: “Shit! How much time dapest. The story portrays a pastor’s family do I have left to make a movie about what and focuses on the relationship between the it’s like to be young?” His hope with this film father and his son. The father is now dead is to create a picture of how youth in all its and the son has to work out what’s keeping crazy splendour can be more fully lived when the annoying ghost of his father in the earthly you’re in it and more beautifully remembered dimension. He takes advice from a once it has passed. professional medium and starts to sew up Art school classmates Christopher and Michal a series of loose ends to set the ghost free. restlessly roam Warsaw’s streets in search of Such an unusual grieving process finally living forever inside the beautiful moment. affects the life of the whole family. Never content with answers, they push each experience to its breaking point, testing what PROD Ferenc Pusztai PROD COMP Kmh it might mean to be truly awake in a world Film CAM Gergely Pohárnok MUSIC Adam that seems satisfied to be asleep. Balazs WITH Márton Kristóf, Zsolt Anger, Eszter Csákányi SALES International DiviPROD Thomas Benski, Marta Golba, Lucas son of the Hungarian National Film Fund Ochoa, Shane Boris, Maxyne Franklin, Katarzyna Szczerba PROD COMP Kino Bize Endorfina Studio/Pulse Films/Studio PUK Sunday, 10/09 20:30 CAM Michal Marczak, Maciej Twardowski MUSIC Lubomir Grzelak WITH Krzysztof Baginsk, Michal Huszcza, Ewa Lebeuf SALES The Festival Agency K.Suns Saturday, 16/09 20:30 (16+)

Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov

GLORY

György Kristóf

OUT

SLAVA

KIHŰLÉS

BG/GR, 2016, 101’, bul

CZ/SK/HU/LV, 2017, 88’, slo/cze/hun/pol/lav/rus/fin

The film is inspired by an event reported in the Bulgarian press. A social-realist parable exploring the themes of corruption, class differences, and the rural-urban divide in contemporary society. Tsanko Petrov, a railroad worker finds millions of leva on the train tracks. He decides to turn the entire amount over to the police, and the state rewards him with a new wristwatch, but soon the new watch stops working. Meanwhile, Julia Staikova, head of the PR department of the Ministry of Transport, loses Petrov’s old watch. And here starts his desperate struggle to get his old watch back, as well as his dignity. PROD Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov PROD COMP Abraxas Film CAM Krum Rodriguez MUSIC Hristo Namliev WITH Stefan Denolyubov, Margita Gosheva, Ana Bratoeva SALES Wide DISTR (LV) Kino Bize Kino Bize Monday, 11/09 20:30

The power plant is closing – unemployment takes over a town in eastern Slovakia. Ágoston, a tall family man in his fifties ventures through eastern Europe in desperate attempt to get a job and fulfil his dream – to catch a big fish. In Baltic, he finds himself alone and deserted. His voyage leads him deeper and deeper into the ocean of bizarre events and encounters, with tall friendly woman, Russian friend with unfriendly intentions, and sad stuffed earless rabbit. Waves grind on sandy beaches and return to sea. New wave comes to wipe off the preceding one. The sea doesn’t end here and it definitely doesn’t start here. fulfilled life. PROD Ferenc Pusztai, Marek Urban, Jiri Konecny, Ivo Ceplevics, Andrea Taschler, Guillaume de Seille PROD COMP Arizona Films, Endorfilm, Film Angels Studio, KMH Film, Mirage Film Studio, Sentimentalfilm CAM Gergely Pohárnok MUSIC Miroslav Tóth WITH Sándor Terhes, Éva Bandor, Ieva Norvele, Guna Zariņa, Ieva Aleksandrova - Eklone SALES Cercamon Splendid Palace Large hall Monday, 11/09 19:00

Agnieszka Smoczynska

THE LURE

CÓRKI DANCINGU

PO, 2015, 92’, pol

An adult fairy tale. In mythology of mermaids, they are often portrayed as evil, wild, and predatory. Here the mermaid is a voracious but sensitive being who tries to follow the principles of the human world and loses her own identity. These mermaids do not wear seashell bras but rather chew on human hearts. A pair of mermaid sisters in an alternate 1980s Poland are drawn ashore to explore the wonders and temptations of life on land. Their tantalizing siren songs and otherworldly auras make them overnight sensations as nightclub singers. One sister falls for a human, and the siblings’ bond is tested as love and survival come into conflict… PROD Wlodzimierz Niderhaus, Agnieszka Bedkowska, Piotr Sobkowicz, Tomasz Czajkowski, Jaroslaw Sawko, Piotr Sikora PROD COMP Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych (WFDiF), Platige Image,Telewizja Polska CAM Jakub Kijowski MUSIC Barbara Wrońska, Zuzanna Wrońska, Marcin Macuk WITH Michalina Olszanska, Marta Mazurek, Kinga Prajs, Jakub Gierszal SALES WFDiF productions Splendid Palace Small hall Tuesday, 12/09 16:00 (16+) K.Suns Friday, 15/09 20:30 (16+)

RIGA IFF SELECTION

72 The Riga IFF selection from the most prominent European and World cinema for the pleasure of both local audience and foreign guests. Films that have already won or hold the potential to win prestigious awards and praise from the experts. Films with directors whose names alone conjure memories and images of their works to those in the know. Director-brands: Seidl, Solondz, Desplechin, Khlebnikov and, beyond doubt, Jodorowsky – his films for several generations already have been seen as a reference point for cinema and art. Add to that the iconic Australian actress Cate Blanchett in thirteen different, surprising characters in the unique film Manifesto.

The Riga IFF SELECTION is simultaneously a cinematic trove of delight for cinephiles and a must-see choice for those still less familiar with cinema. Todd Solondz, one of the most significant screenwriters and directors of American independent cinema, describes his viewer as follows: “When I’m asked, who my audience is, I say someone with an open mind, which is not a vacant one and sometimes a liberal mind is not the same thing as an open one”.

Boris Khlebnikov

Alejandro Jodorowsky

ARRHYTHMIA

ENDLESS POETRY

RU/FI/DE, 2017, 116’, rus

CL/FR, 2016, 128’, spa

“CAN I HUG YOU? JUST HUG YOU. CAN I?”

“I WANT TO MAKE FILMS THAT TRIGGER A POSITIVE CRISIS WITHIN YOURSELF, FILMS ABLE TO MAKE YOU FACE YOUR ESSENTIAL SELF.” A. JODOROWSKY

АРИТМИЯ

Oleg is a young gifted paramedic. His wife Katya works at the hospital emergency department. She loves Oleg, but is fed up with him caring more about patients than her. She tells him she wants a divorce. The new head of Oleg’s EMA substation is a cold-hearted manager who’s got new strict rules to implement. Oleg couldn’t care less about the rules – he’s got lives to save. His attitude gets him in trouble with the new boss. The crisis at work coincides with the personal life crisis. Caught between emergency calls, alcohol-fueled off-shifts, and search for a meaning in life, Oleg and Katya have to find the binding force that keeps them together. PROD Sergey Selyanov, Ruben Dishdishian PROD COMP CTB Film Company CAM Alisher Khamidkhodzhaev WITH Irina Gorbacheva, Alexander Yatsenko SALES Indie Sales DISTR (LV) CTB Film Company Splendid Palace Large hall Sunday, 10/09 19:00

POESIA SIN FIN

Santiago de Chile, during the thrilling years of the 40s and the 50s. Alejandrito Jodorowsky, aged twenty, decides to become a poet against the will of his family. He is introduced in the inner circle of the artistic and intellectual avant-garde of the time and meets Enrique Lihn, Stella Diaz, Nicanor Parra and many other promising but anonymous young writers who will become the masters of Latin America’s modern literature. Totally immersed in this world of poetic experimentation, they live together as few have dared to live before: sensually, authentically, freely, madly. PROD Alejandro Jodorowsky, Moisés Cosío, Abbas Nokhasteh, Takashi Asahi, Xavier Guerrero Yamamoto, Patrice Hallé, Robert Taicher PROD COMP Le Pacte, Le Soleil Films, Openvizor, Satori Films CAM Christopher Doyle MUSIC Adan Jodorowsky WITH Adan Jodorowsky, Pamela Flores, Brontis Jodorowsky, Leandro Taub SALES Unifrance Film International DISTR (LV) Riga International Film Festival Splendid Palace Large hall Monday, 11/09 21:30 Splendid Palace Large hall Sunday, 17/09 21:30

Kasper Collin

Arnaud Desplechin

I CALLED HIM MORGAN

ISMAEL’S GHOSTS

SE/US, 2016, 91’, eng

FR, 2017, 114’, fra

HIS WIFE, HIS TRUMPET AND IT’S SNOWING IN NEW YORK.

A LIFE MORE CINEMATIC THAN LIFE?

On a snowy night in February 1972, celebrated jazz musician Lee Morgan was shot dead by his wife Helen during a gig at a club in New York City. The murder sent shockwaves through the jazz community, and the memory of the event still haunts those who knew the Morgans. This feature documentary by Swedish filmmaker Kasper Collin is a love letter to two unique personalities and the music that brought them together. A film about love, jazz and America. There are different strands of newly filmed material in the documentary – the interviews, some memory visuals, and the 16mm material that illustrates Helen’s story. PROD Kasper Collin, Dan Braun, Ron Mann, Nicole Stott PROD COMP Kasper Collin Produktion CAM Erik Vallsten, Bradford Young MUSIC Gary Welch WITH Lee Morgan, Helen Morgan, Wayne Shorter SALES Nonstop Entertainment DISTR (LV) Riga International Film Festival Splendid Palace Large hall Sunday, 10/09 21:30 Splendid Palace Large hall Saturday, 16/09 19:00

LES FANTÔMES D’ISMAËL

Ismaël Vuillard makes films. He is in the middle of one about Ivan, an atypical diplomat inspired by his brother. Along with Bloom, his master and father-in-law, Ismaël still mourns the death of Carlotta, twenty years earlier. Yet he has started his life over again with Sylvia. Sylvia is his light. Then Carlotta returns from the dead. Sylvia runs away. Ismaël rejects Carlotta. Driven mad by these ordeals, he abandons the shoot for his family home in Roubaix. There, he lives as a recluse, besieged by his ghosts. PROD Pascal Caucheteux, Oury Milshtein, Vincent Maraval PROD COMP Why Not Productions CAM Irina Lubtchansky MUSIC Grégoire Hetzel, Mike Kourtzer WITH Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Louis Garrel, Mathieu Almaric SALES Wild Bunch DISTR (LV) Riga International Film Festival Splendid Palace Large hall Sunday, 10/09 16:30 Splendid Palace Large hall Saturday, 16/09 21:30

William Oldroyd

Julian Rosefeldt

LADY MACBETH

MANIFESTO

GB, 2016, 89’, eng

DE/AT, 2016, 84’, eng

SO MUCH MORE THAN A PERIOD PIECE.

A MANIFESTO OF MANIFESTOS. HOMAGE TO THE BEAUTY OF ARTISTS’ MANIFESTOS.

The debut feature by accomplished theater director William Oldroyd relocates Nikolai Leskov’s play Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District to Victorian England. Florence Pugh is forceful and complex as Lady Katherine, who enters into an arranged marriage with the domineering, repressed Alexander (Paul Hilton), and must contend with her husband’s even more unpleasant mine-owner father (Christopher Fairbank). In this constrictive new milieu, she finds carnal release with one of her husband’s servants (Cosmo Jarvis), but there are profound consequences to her infidelity. Boasting deft performances by an outstanding ensemble cast, Lady Macbeth is a rousing parable about the price of freedom. PROD Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly PROD COMP Sixty Six Pictures, BBC Films, British Film Institute (BFI), Creative England, iFeatures CAM Ari Wegner MUSIC Dan Jones WITH Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton, Naomi Ackie SALES Nonstop Entertainment DISTR (LV) Riga International Film Festival Splendid Palace Large hall Wednesday, 13/09 21:30 (16+) K.Suns Sunday, 17/09 20:30 (16+)

Cate Blanchett in 13 distinct, must-see vignettes that incorporate timeless, influential and emotional manifestos from 20th century art movements. From anchorwoman to homeless man, from Pop Art to Dogma 95, a chameleonic Blanchett gives a tourde-force performance as she transforms herself like never before. Rosefeldt weaves together history’s most impassioned artistic statements in this stunning and contemporary call to action. The film draws on the writings of Futurists, Dadaists, Fluxus artists, Suprematists, Situationists and other artist groups, as well as the musings of individual artists, architects, dancers and filmmakers. PROD Julian Rosefeldt PROD COMP BR Bayerischer Rundfunk, Schiwago Film, Ruhr Triennale CAM Christoph Krauss MUSIC Nils Frahm, Ben Lukas Boysen WITH Cate Blanchett SALES The Match Factory DISTR (LV) A-One Films Baltic Splendid Palace Large hall Thursday, 14/09 21:30

Ildiko Enyedi

Ulrich Seidl

ON BODY AND SOUL

SAFARI

HU, 2017, 116’, hun

AT, 2016, 90’, ger

WE’RE IN THE SAME DREAM.

WHAT DRIVES PEOPLE TO KILL?

TESTRÖL ÉS LÉLEKRÖL

A slaughterhouse in Budapest is the Today hunting in Africa is something even setting of a strangely beautiful love story. No an average person can afford. And in a sooner does Mária start work as the certain sense, for many hunters from the new quality controller than the whispers Western world, Russia or China, it has become begin. At lunch, the young woman always normal to travel to Africa once or even chooses a table on her own in the sterile several times a year, and to go hunting daily. canteen where she sits in silence. Her boss As a rule that means shooting two animals Endre is also the quiet type. Tentatively, they a day, one in the morning and one in the begin to get to know each other. Recognis- afternoon. Some determinedly searching ing their spiritual kinship, they are amazed to for trophies, others to enjoy. Even if every discover that they even have the same dreams prey comes at a price, they always find a at night… This story of two people discove- way to legitimize their own actions. The ring the realm of emotions and physical director wanted to show both how hunting desire tells about the fears and inhibitions is organized – what‘s involved in it – and associated with opening up to others, and about what those who hunt experience emotionally. how exhilarating it can be when you finally do. PROD Ulrich Seidl PROD COMP Ulrich PROD Monika Mécs, András Muhi PROD Seidl Film Produktion GmbH CAM Ulrich COMP Inforg-M&M Film Kft. CAM Máté Seidl, Wolfgang Thaler WITH Manuel Herbai MUSIC Adam Balazs WITH Géza Eichinger, Markolf Schmidt, Eva Hofmann, Morcsányi, Alexandra Borbély, Zoltán SALES Afc - Austrian Films DISTR (LV) Must Schneider SALES Films Boutique DISTR (LV) Kasi, Kino Soprus A-One Films Baltic Splendid Palace Small hall Splendid Palace Large hall Saturday, 09/09 18:00 (16+) Saturday, 16/09 16:30 (16+) Splendid Palace Large hall Tuesday, 12/09 21:30 (16+)

Maria Schrader

Joachim Trier

STEFAN ZWEIG, FAREWELL TO EUROPE

THELMA

DE/FR/AT, 2016, 106’, fra/spa/eng/ger

NO/FR/DK/SE, 2016, 116’, nor

IT SEEMS AS IF THE RICHNESS OF ZWEIG’S CONFLICTED IDENTITY IS CREATED RIGHT THEN AND THERE – ON THE BIG SCREEN.

FAITH AND DOUBT. PURITY AND TEMPTATION. GIFT AND CURSE.

VOR DER MORGENRÖTE

An intriguing thriller-cum-lovestory about a young woman who has just left her religious “Each one of us, even the smallest and the most family on the west coast of Norway to study insignificant, has been shaken in the depths at a university in Oslo. Thelma (Eili Harboe) of his being by the almost unceasing volcanic falls in love and at the same time discovers eruptions of our European earth. I know of no that she possesses frightening and inexplipre-eminence that I can claim, in the midst of cable supernatural abilities. She is confronthe multitude, except this: that as an Austrian, ted with tragic secrets of her past and the a Jew, an author, a humanist, and a pacifist, I terrifying implications of her powers. have always stood at the exact point where The film leads into shadowy, unexpecthese earthquakes were the most violent.“ ted spaces that might bring closer to Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday feelings hidden deep inside us. It shows The years of exile in the life of Stefan Zweig, that the most frightening things of all one of the most read German-language come from within. writers of his time, between Buenos Aires, Thelma is Joachim Trier’s new NorwegianNew York and Brazil. As a Jewish intellectu- language film, after the award-winning al, Zweig struggles to find the right stance English-language Louder Than Bombs (2015). towards the events in Nazi Germany, while searching for a home in the new world. PROD Thomas Robsahm PROD COMP Motlys, Eurimages, Film i Väst, Le Pacte, PROD Stefan Arndt, Danny Krausz, Denis Snowglobe Films CAM Jakob Ihre Poncet, Uwe Schott PROD COMP X-Filme MUSIC Ola Fløttum WITH Eili Harboe, Creative Pool/Idéale Audience, Maha Pro- Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Henrik Rafaelsen SALES ductions, Dor Film Produktionsgesellschaft Memento Films DISTR (LV) Riga International CAM Wolfgang Thaler MUSIC Cornelius Film Festival Renz, Tobias Wagner WITH Josef Hader, Barbara Sukowa, Aenne Schwarz SALES Splendid Palace Large hall Films Distribution DISTR (LV) BestFilm.eu Sunday, 17/09 19:00 Splendid Palace Large hall Saturday, 09/09 15:30

Todd Solondz

Dome Karukoski

WIENER-DOG

TOM OF FINLAND

US, 2016, 88’, eng

FI/SE/DK/DE/ASV, 115’, fin/ger/eng

IT’S NOT THE DOG.

IT’S NOT JUST THE DRAWINGS.

A dark, starkly funny story of a single dog Award-winning filmmaker Dome Karukoski and the many different people she touches brings to screen the life and work of one of over her short lifetime. Man’s best friend the most influential and celebrated figures of starts out teaching a young boy some twentieth century gay culture. contorted life lessons before being taken in Touko Laaksonen, a decorated officer, by a compassionate vet tech named Dawn returns home after a harrowing and heroic Wiener. Dawn reunites with someone from experience serving his country in World her past and sets off on a road trip. After War II, but life in Finland during peacetime leaving Dawn, Wiener-Dog encounters a proves equally distressing. He finds post-war floundering film professor, as well as an em- Helsinki rampant with homophobic bittered elderly woman and her needy grand- persecution, and men around him even being daughter – all longing for something more. pressured to marry women and have chilSolondz’s perversely dark comedy offers an dren. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, appallingly honest look at the American ex- specialising in homoerotic drawings of perience, brought to life by its allstar cast. muscular men, free of inhabitations. His work – made famous by his signature Tom of Finland – PROD Megan Ellison, Christine Vachon, became the emblem of a generation of men David Distenfeld, Jillian Longnecker and fanned the flames of a gay revolution. PROD COMP Annapurna Pictures, Killer Films CAM Edward Lachman MUSIC Nathan PROD Aleksi Bardy, Mila Haavisto. Larson, James Lavino WITH Greta Gerwig, Annika Sucksdorff PROD COMP Helsinki-filmi, Ellen Burstyn, Danny Devito SALES NonStop Anagram Vast, Fridthjof Film, Neutrinos Entertainment DISTR (LV) Riga International Productions CAM Lasse Frank Johannessen Film Festival WITH Jakob Oftebro, Werner Daehn, Lauri Tilkanen, Pekka Strang, Lauri Tilkanen SALES Splendid Palace Large hall Protagonist Pictures DISTR (LV) Estinfilm Thursday, 14/09 16:30 (16+) Splendid Palace Small hall Splendid Palace Large hall Sunday, 17/09 20:30 (16+) Friday, 15/09 22:00

Luca Guadagnino

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

IT/FR, 2017, 131’, eng/ita/fre

THE EIGHTIES, SUMMER, ITALY, SWIMMING POOLS AND INTELLECTUALS. “I asked myself if I wanted to create a piece that was a sort of conversation between the storyline, the characters, and the medium, or if I just wanted the characters and the story to flow. And I said to myself: ‘Step back! Have faith in these people and this setting.’ So I chose to make the movie in the most lighthearted and simple way. I think it’s probably the movie I made with the most calmness, applying in a very specific and literal way my motto, that we should live with a sense of joie de vivre,” the director Luca Guadagnino tells Variety about the film based on the 2007 novel by André Aciman. It tells of rare and deep feelings, of coming of age, of romance and of romanticism, of prejudice and lack thereof. PROD Peter Spears, Luca Guadagnino, Emilie Georges, Rodrigo Teixeira, Marco Morabito PROD COMP Memento Films International CAM Sayombhu Mukdeeprom WITH Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, Victoire Du Bois SALES Sony Pictures Classics DISTR (LV) ACME Film Splendid Palace Large hall Tuesday, 12/09 19:00 (16+)

RIGA IFF #OPENING_EVENT

SOUND WE SEE: RIGA

The Baltic, Russian and Scandinavian arts camera. And assignment to cinematically and culture web portal Arterritory.com paint a picture of their Riga. After all the in collaboration with Los Angeles-based shoots Lisa and Paolo sat down with each of media arts organization Echo Park Film them to edit the footage to approximately Center has prepared something special for 1 minute. the opening night of the Riga IFF this year. “Forget narrative cinema, sit back During the Summer months here in Riga and enjoy the flow,” said Paolo at the two film-makers – founders of Echo Park closed screening the team had when the Film Center – Lisa Marr and Paolo Davan- cut was done. zo worked with 24 artists, photographers, Now, the 24 had to also limit themselves architects, writers, designers from Riga. To to using only the image – without sound. most of them – this was their first intro- The 24 minutes of film will be scored duction to film and moreover – to analog live by Latvian composer and pianist film. With basically the same limitations PLATON BURAVICKY – a man who as those that Ruttmann and Vertov used feels equally at home writing music for when inventing their “city symphonies”. the orchestra as well as performing with In this case the participants each had to modular electronic systems – converting choose 1 hour from the 24 hour cycle the experience into a cinematic concert. to film, they 100ft of film and a 16mm

THE AUTHORS OF THE SOUND WE WILL SEE: Agnese Krivade, Aigars Bikše, Anda Lāce, Ansis Starks, Atis Jākobsons, Evelīna Ozola, Gunārs Binde, Ieva Epnere, Jānis Putniņš, Karlīna Vītoliņa, Katrīna Neiburga, Kristians Brekte, Krišs Salmanis, Maija Kurševa, Mārtiņš Grauds, Miķelis Baštiks, Miķelis Putniņš, Pauls Bankovskis, MAREUNROL’S, Sergejs Timofejevs, Odrija Fišere, Signe Birkova, Viesturs Meikšāns and Andris Freibergs/Žanete Skarule. Splendid Palace Large hall Friday, 08/09 19:00

upheaval is a person whose name remains unknown to a wider public… The multimedia artist Indulis Bilzēns, one of the most notable cultural diplomats of the 80s and 90s, enforced the transformation of mindsets and environment already before the radical political changes came about. His efforts and contribution are revealed in this film through unique archive footage and interviews of those who made their impact to the depicted historical events as well.

PROD Konstantin Nafikov PROD COMP Reflexion Films, Kosmos Films, VFS Films SCRIPT Viktors Buda CAM Ritvars Bluka WITH Indulis Bilzēns, Maximilian Lenz (Westbam), Derrick May, Artemy Troitsky, Roberts Gobziņš (Eastbam), Jānis Krauklis, Uģis Polis, Alexei Haas et al. SALES Reflexion Films

The second half of the 80s of the XX century – the Cold War tension between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc is decreasing, perestroika is launched, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR are just about to shake the world… A new phenomenon unites the West and the East – the techno music revolution. It sparked off as a result of the electronic dance music of the free world being introduced to the avantgarde behind the iron curtain. The chief architect of this cultural

THAT WAS THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA…

SPECIAL SCREENING

RIGA IFF

81 Special guests of the premiere – Indulis Bilzēns, Artemy Troitsky and Maximilian Lenz (Westbam).

Splendid Palace Large hall Thursday, 14/09 19:00

RU/LV, 2017, 80’, eng/rus/deu/lav

ERA OF DANCE

Viktors Buda

Photo – Ansis Starks

Žanete Skarule

FLYING MONKS TEMPLE LIDOJOŠO MŪKU TEMPLIS LV, 2017, 55’, lav/eng/cmn

Splendid Palace Small hall Thursday, 07/09 19:00

#FIRST_DAY _SCREENING

conventions need to be reassessed, personal ambitions become two sides of the same coin. Quanqi Zhu wants to bring the West into China, Austris Mailītis deeply values Eastern philosophy, and Shaolin monks fly in the air in the world’s first building constructed for probably the most fundamental of human ambitions – levitation.

MAKING FILMS ABOUT ARCHITECTURE IS LIKE MAKING MUSIC ABOUT DANCING.

On the first day of the festival VFS Films will premiere a documentary project that took years in the making. At the centre of it all – a Latvian architect and a Chinese mountain miner. The process – an ambitious structure in the “centre of the World” – the Sacred Songshan mountain in the Henan province of China. Cultures differ, traditional assumptions and

PROD Uldis Cekulis PROD COMP VFS Films CAM Valdis Celmiņš, Jānis Jurkovskis, Norbert Shieh MUSIC Voldemārs Johansons

SELECT RIGA IFF EVENTS THU 7/09 RIGA IFF FORUM EUROPEAN CHILDREN’S FILM PITCHING SESSIONS PRESENTATION: FILM IN LATVIA 2017 10:00 – 17:30 CAFE FILM NOIR ENTRY FOR REGISTERED PARTICIPANTS ONLY

FRI 8/09 RIGA IFF FORUM EUROPEAN CHILDREN’S FILM PRESENTATIONS FOR CHILDREN AUDIENCES 10:00 – 13:00 CAFE FILM NOIR ENTRY FOR REGISTERED PARTICIPANTS ONLY RIGA IFF FORUM PANEL: EUROPEAN CHILDREN’S FILM MEETS TECH 14:00 – 16:00 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY ARTDOCFEST/RIGA: EASTERN EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY PITCHING SESSIONS 17:30 – 19:00 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY RIGA IFF #OPENING_EVENT: SOUND WE SEE: RĪGA. LIVE 20:00 SPLENDID PALACE TICKETS: www.rigaiff.lv

#OPENING_AFTER 22:00 KAŅEPES KULTŪRAS CENTRS ENTRY: 1€

SAT 9/09 RIGA IFF ZIP-MEETING: LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! PRESENTATION. SHOOTING SITES IN THE BALTICS 11:00 – 13:00 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY KIDS WEEKEND PLAYGROUND/BRUNCH 11:00 – 16:00 SPLENDID PALACE ARTDOCFEST/RIGA ROUND TABLE: PROPAGANDA. INSTRUMENTS AND TASKS. 17:00 – 19:00 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY NORDIC HIGHLIGHTS #PROGRAMME_OPENING: CITIZEN SCHEIN – BALTIC PREMIERE SPECIAL RECEPTION BY THE EMBASSY OF SWEDEN IN RIGA 17:30 SPLENDID PALACE TICKETS: www.rigaiff.lv HOMO NOVUS INVITES: SUFFICIENTLY COMPACT MASS (PLU) 23:00 KAŅEPES KULTŪRAS CENTRS FREE ENTRY

SUN 10/09 KIDS WEEKEND PLAYGROUND/BRUNCH 11:00 – 16:00 SPLENDID PALACE ARTDOCFEST/RIGA ROUND TABLE BY CURRENTTIME.TV: BALTIC FILM. TRADITIONALISM OR INTEGRATION? 14:00 – 16:00 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY BALTIC FILM TALENT LAB CASE STUDY SESSION: EDMUNDS JANSONS PIGTAIL AND MR. SLEEPLESSNESS MODERATED BY DIAN PERRY 18:00 – 19:30 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY

MON 11/09 ARTDOCFEST/RIGA ROUND TABLE BY KINOART.RU: RUSSIAN FILM AND FILM ABOUT RUSSIA. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? 15:30 – 17:30 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY

TUE 12/09 ARTDOCFEST/RIGA ROUND TABLE BY SVOBODA.ORG: HEROES AND ANTIHEROES IN DOCUMENTARY FILM 14:00 – 16:00 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY IN KINO VERITAS #PANEL: B-MOVIE. THE GENRE. THE MYTH. 18:30 – 19:30 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY

IN KINO VERITAS #PROGRAMME_OPENING_AFTER: NIKTO LIVE IN CONCERT SKAŅU MEŽS DISCOTHEQUE 21:30 KAŅEPES KULTŪRAS CENTRS ENTRY: 3€

WED 13/09 SHORT RIGA #OPENING_EVENT 20:00 KAŅEPES KULTŪRAS CENTRS ENTRY: 3€

THU 14/09 RIGA IFF CRITICS MEETING: TALK. NEIL YOUNG – TEN FILM CRITICS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 14:00 – 15:30 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY RIGA IFF CRITICS MEETING: TALK. NEIL YOUNG FILM IN THE CLASSROOM 14:00 – 15:30 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY ERA OF DANCE #PREMIERE_AFTER 22:00 KAŅEPES KULTŪRAS CENTRS ENTRY: 1€

FRI 15/09 SHORT RIGA #BMV BALTIC MUSIC VIDEO COMPETITION SCREENING 20:00 KAŅEPES KULTŪRAS CENTRS TICKETS: www.rigaiff.lv #BMV_AFTER KAŅEPES KULTŪRAS CENTRS ENTRY: 1€

SAT 16/09 BALTIC FILM TALENT LAB TALK: CONTEMPORARY FILM SCORE THOR JOACHIM HAGA 13:00 – 14:30 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY BALTIC FILM TALENT LAB FILM MUSIC CASE STUDY SESSION: DIRECTOR + COMPOSER 15:00 – 17:00 CAFE FILM NOIR FREE ENTRY

RIGA IFF #AWARDS 20:00 – 21:30 SPLENDID PALACE FREE ENTRY

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Oh! And have we mentioned that this is a

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