Guna Zariņa

A unique, engaging film that combines documentary footage with narrative cinema to tell the story of four generations of a Latvian family. Sixteen year-old student Jānis has been given an interesting homework assignment – to draw his family tree and explain it. The story of his family begins with his great-great-grandfather who burned down the manors of German landowners during the 1905 revolution. My Family Tree takes us on a journey to various countries and political regimes, showing Jānis’ ancestors to be people of diverse fates and life stories. A rich Latvian trader, a red rifleman loyal to Lenin, a carpenter with the KGB and war refugees in Sweden are only a few branches on his family tree, and the boy has heard something unusual and unforgettable about each and every one of these people.

While examining one of her patients, a doctor reveals that her husband is cheating with the patient's wife.

The shy scientist Lars decides to publish a small ad in order to find a girlfriend. From the 218 replies, he selects Brigita, an attractive Latvian woman and invites her to Stockholm. But what actually happens after Brigita's arrival is far more complicated than Lars could ever have imagined.

After recovering from an overseas mission, Krists Lapins moves into a quiet neighbourhood in Riga. His hopes for a new, peaceful life are disrupted when an unexpected visitor arrives one night. Krists soon finds himself in a swirl of events involving a mysterious blonde, a wannabe private detective, a bankrupt millionaire, and a rigorous cop. In this witty portrayal of modern Latvian society the absurd meets the comic and nothing is what it seems.

OUT is an odyssey about 50 year old family man Agoston wandering through East Europe. After loosing his lifelong job in a power plant of small Slovak village Agoston takes the shady but alluring opportunity to work as a welder in a shipyard in Latvia. The journey in hopes of a new job in reality turns into a accelerating whirlwind of absurd events of short encounters, newly found-and-lost-again friendships subtracting from Agoston all his possessions and everything he once believed to be his whole life. However Agoston doesn't give up his search for income and decides to persuade his dream of catching a big sea fish.

The 14th of June 1941, Soviet-occupied Latvia: Without warning, the authorities break into the house of Melanie and her husband Aleksandr and force them to leave everything behind. Together with more than 15 000 Latvians, Melanie and her son get deported to Siberia. In her fight against cold, famine and cruelty, she only gains new strength through the letters she writes to Aleksandr, full of hope for a free Latvia and a better tomorrow.

A man in a grey coat roams the city. He is interested in boys and men. Those good enough for him will get a green bag. Marija is home alone. She is the only woman to get a green bag. But the film does not end quite there.

Pigtail loves the winter holidays, but this year, shortly before Christmas, Brother comes into the world, turning everything upside down. Grandmother arrives from the countryside, because Pigtail’s parents no longer have time to take her skating, but Pigtail and her best friend, Mr. Sleeplessness, don’t like the new order. They come up with a plan – to send Brother and Grandmother to the Moon, in a bid to reclaim parental attention.

Summer, 1989. City girls, Paula and Laura, spend their summer holidays in a small town with their cousins, Maija and Linda. Four girls, left unattended, enjoy freedom, imitate the life of adults, plunge into reckless adventures and get into trouble. Based on true events, nine-year-old Paula’s story of growing up is set against the background of time when Lat-via made her first steps towards independence.

Based on a Lithuanian writer’s novel “Breathing Into Marble” the film focuses on the challenges of a modern family. It is a romantic ballad with the plot of a thriller. Izabele and Liudas – itellectuals living in a homestead near a big city and raising the son, Gailius, who has a case of epilepsy and is smarter than most children his age. Izabele convinces her husband to adopt a six-year-old boy who is unable to put down roots in this new family and always fights for mother’s attention. Director Giedrė Beinoriūtė speaks about relationships, invisible bonds connecting our lives and responsibility for each other.

A family film based on the book Bille by Vizma Belševica. An extraordinary, lonely yet spiritually strong little girl attempts to comprehend the adult world, which in her eyes is very contradictory, and to prove her own value despite the ignorance and lack of appreciation by her family in late 1930s. Bille tries to find an escape in her vivid imagination.

Riga in the 30s. Wild bohemian lifestyle is the name of the game for every artist worth his salt. A young man from the countryside, poor but ambitious, arrives in the capital, where he hopes to make his mark in the artistic circles. What follows is a string of events, fraught with confusion and misunderstanding, hilarious and heart-warming at the same time.

A Greek couple, Anna (Katia Goulioni) and Petros (Andreas Konstantinou), have recently moved to a small industrial town in Siberia. It’s a long process to adapt, especially for Anna, since Petros is quite occupied with his job. That will cause a conflict between them and inevitably the couple is distanced. Everything is escalated as for the past period there is no sexual intercourse between them. This slow-paced decay is intensified when an unexpected event occurs, changing everything between them. Balancing between trust and disbelief the haunting suspense evolves.

Film takes us deep inside the world of Latvian teenagers in 90s: combining the intimate diary of a teenager Jānis trying to find himself by joining a subculture, as well as a skillful, detailed and almost documentary-like depiction of the beginnings of the second independence of Latvia. “Jelgava ’94” is a portrait of a generation in the 1990s who are searching for their own identity and are fans of alternative culture. This is a touching story about us as youngsters, when everybody is against the whole world and tries not to become “one of them”. But can one keep the promise? The story is based on the best seller by Jānis Joņevs set in the 1994 in the Latvian city of Jelgava.

Oleg, a young Latvian butcher, arrives in Brussels in the hope of getting a better salary in a meat factory. His experience turns short after being betrayed by a colleague. Alone in a country where he doesn’t belong, he quickly falls under the yoke of Andrzej, a Polish criminal.

In this movie (based on a true story) within a movie, a director tries to film the tale of an old KGB activist living in a parish house. In the summer of 1941 the activist tortured and killed Latvians in the cellar of the house. Although the old man hires others to brick over the cellar door, the murdered people keep coming through the stones and never leave him in peace. Unbeknownst to the film makers, the "real" KGB activist, now an aged drunk, is milling about the film set. Moreover, the director and lead actor are competing for the love of the lead actress, and the film's producer wants the director to re-shoot parts of the movie.

When the daughter of the Sun and the Moon is stolen, desperate parents call people to get their baby back. Helpers are given only three days: if at that time, the Sun's daughter will not be found, she will lose her strength and become an ordinary girl. A journey of danger and adventure, which teaches everyone not only to be brave and resourceful, but also helpful. The Latvian animated film is based on folklore motifs.

After the lives of several people are tied into a intriguing knot upon meeting police officer Krasts one hot summer day, they’re all brought together again on a full moon winter night. Intrigue develops among a couple of lovers, Gints and Elga, three adventure-race participants with one woman, Renate, on their team, three generations of a family whose father, Karlis, died in a tragic hunting accident, Karlis’s daughter Aija, his former lover Livija, and a young girl hardened by life, who lives at a Christian home for expectant mothers. A detective twist is added by a bit of poison, which one of them will get.

A tale about a nine-year old boy's relationship with the world around him, shot in one of Latvia's poorest and most beautiful regions - Latgale

Wedding rituals and a love triangle.

There should be silence in a museum. And someone should see to it that the silence is there. It's the logical order of things. However, it might seem weird to somebody.

Maria decides to go for a swim in the pool even though it looks deserted and she’s warned that the water is cold. When she gets into the pool she is faced with not only the frigid water, but with her other feelings as well. Like fear.

Even before Marija was born it was clear that she would be a person getting in trouble all the time. However, that’s not all. The most important thing is that she is often alongside firemen. Is it because things around her catch fire?

A tragicomic tale about the relationship of Guna and the twice older writer Gints. Guna has lost her job, but Gints hasn’t written anything in years. Whilst running away from an unsatisfactory relationship and the lack of creative self-expression, Guna gets obsessed with the theatre performance “Odyssey” by the famous director Viestur Kairish and begins to mix reality with theatre. Guna tries to start a new life, but her fantasy world doesn’t allow her to be a part of reality anymore.

This creative documentary tells the story of women in art – what she has to sacrifice in her personal life and what choices have to be made in order to gain success in her career. The film explores life of artist, by following theatre director’s Mara Kimele's fighting relationships with her despotic grandmother Anna Lacis (widely known as Asya, whose life is closely tied to the names of Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brech), cynical son Peteris (who is played by an actor) and work while she stages F. Dostoevsky's “Crime and Punishment”. Every character of film is an act. But does that make them any less real? And what is real in the world of art? Apart from its human character's, the film also has an animated one – the horse, who came into life through the first letter Mara wrote to her grand mother and has been following her ever since.

The mundane life of Rita, a nurse and a single mum, changes when she sets eyes on a young photographer named Ernest. Meanwhile, an unexpected encounter with her ex-husband and the father of her child brings back hopes and desires of the past that challenge Rita’s true feelings.

The time for the annual great graveyard celebration is approaching in a small town. Scientist Laila can’t attend it alone this year. She has to make a choice.

Elīna returns to the summer house of her childhood to show it to buyers. The visceral presence of her dead grandmother forces her to reflect on the legacy of failing familial relations – and how she and her mother are approaching a similar fate.

Ainars has been a principal of a local music school for forty years until he is unexpectedly fired. Ainars feels betrayed. Seeing him unhappy, his wife Anita decides to act. When the new principal candidate arrives at the music school, the world created by the two of them collapses. The new suppresses the old and it just seems that everything that has been done before is left in vain.

After his wife kicks him out of the house, an elderly, anti-social and quite conservative man Arvīds decides to reconnect with his grandson by staying with the boy and his mother. Not keen on their lifestyle, the old man tries hard to accept all the eccentricities of the young and liberal. Fortunately for him, a warm-hearted friend of Arvīds’ ex-daughter-in-law is always around to help and he seems to be a natural when it comes to children and other stubborn people. When Arvīds finds out that the young man is gay, he decides he has had enough. Often, life is not that much about finding your place, as about learning how to share that place with others. This short film is a light and playful experience, looking into the definition of “normal” that varies so strongly from generation to generation.

Lame-o’s is set just before the Millennium, in 1999, and is the story of three school friends who are among the most unpopular girls in their class. The friends are determined to radically change the situation. The three friends at the centre of the story are Sarmīte, Sveta and Katrīna, who are studying in the last class of the secondary school. The upcoming Millennium and their approaching graduation make them undertake various measures to become appreciated and liked, which eventually challenge their friendship.

It’s November and “the planets realigned a week ago,” says a police inspector in complete astrological earnestness. A desperate woman has turned to the police asking for help to find her daughter, Anna. She is 21 years old, is getting good grades at the Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University and has been missing for three days. On the same day, a man arrives at the police station because he has found a phone in the forest while walking his dog. It turns out that the smartphone with the Instagram account “Muha_v_komnate” belongs to the missing girl. The stories that Anna’s family members, friends and those close to her tell clash, leading the chief investigator to question whether anyone ever really knew the girl.

A nightmarish evening unfolds for David, a former New York Times journalist, when he and his strange new neighbor Robert, accidentally hit a girl on her bike. Buzzed and disoriented, David lets Robert convince him to flee the scene and leave the girl for dead, in order to protect his career. Robert shows no remorse, and in the name of friendship he does unspeakable things to protect the secret. Now that the police are full-on hunting for the hit-and-run killer, things begin to spiral out of control when David’s local newspaper sends him to cover the story where he meets the deceased girl’s sister Vanessa. Despite the circumstances, and her deep desire to find her sister’s killer, the two immediately have a romantic connection, which surprises and haunts David, while pushing Robert to take brutal steps to keep his new friend to himself.

Everyone has their own emotional overwhelm regarding a bad smell. Lizete, an amateur interviewer, is eager to record the moments when it is revealed. Dealing with the topic of bad odour's influences on society, this is an animated short film for adults in the inquiring style of a documentary. The director continues to work on tragi-comic stories about our natural awkwardness while finding ourselves.

The film is based on true events leading up to the historical 2013 resignation of Benedict XVI. After succeeding John Paul II, and serving as Pope for eight years, Joseph Ratzinger shocked the world by becoming the first Pope to voluntarily resign in over 600 years. In light of moral and ethical upheavals in the Catholic Church, and the unique challenges of the 21st century, Ratzinger's cited reason of declining health raises more questions than it answers.

Estere spends her days by the sea selling ice cream. Trying to find peace, she listens to meditation podcasts and self-help books. Meanwhile, strangers caressed by the summer sun look for the same in tarot cards, alcohol and the Bible. Estere starts to imitate overheard conversations: stuck in positive self-verbalization, she repeats it until she believes it.

Based on a Soviet propaganda story about Young Pioneer (the Soviet equivalent of a Boy Scout) Morozov, who denounced his father to Stalin’s secret police and was in turn killed by his family. His life exemplified the duty of all good Soviet citizens to become informers, at any expense. In our film, 75 years later, we call him little Janis. He is a Pioneer who lives on the Soviet collective farm “Dawn”. His father is an enemy of the farm (and the Soviet system) and plots against it. Little Janis betrays his father; his father takes revenge upon his son. Who then in this old Soviet tale is good and who is bad? This film reveals that a distorted brain is always dangerous. Even today.

A Latvian series shot by the team at Jaunais Rīgas Teātris / New Riga Theatre over the course of summer 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. It's a story about a world that once again changes rapidly. About the belief that everything on this planet is subject to manipulation. The series centers around an advertising agency - a classic office where professionalism mixes with boredom, romance and an existential tiredness.

A story about Emīlija Benjamiņa, the “queen of the press” in interwar Latvia, whose wealth and tragic fate have since become folklore. The film’s narrative covers the period from the beginnings of Emīlija’s magazine Atpūta (Recreation), to her arrest and slow demise in a train en route to Siberia. The most prominent clairvoyant of the time - Eugene Fink’s prophecy that Emīlija would die from starvation in a foreign land (which served to be true) weaves through the narrative as a red thread. With this strong woman at the centre of the story, the film shows Latvian society in all its richness and gives the audience the opportunity to meet many well-known historical figures.

A miniseries about the events during one summer in a family of a writer who are unexpectedly granted a remote estate with all its unusual inhabitants, and who has to decide what to do with the dilapidated estate. Exciting and comic events in eight episodes in which the future writer Anšlavs Eglītis together with his brother Vidvuds, father Viktors and his wife Hilda Vīka, begin the restoration of the estate, at the same time opening a boarding house, which becomes the intersection and summer stage of the neighbourhood, ghosts of the past, visitors from the city and Latvian intellectuals in Latvia in the in the 1920s.