Aldis Siliņš

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.

After the death of Yanek’s father, his mother, whom he hasn’t seen for years, visits him and makes claims on the flat where he and his father lived. He meets his stepbrother Norberth, who insists on staying with him. During a quarrel, Yanek’s finger gets cut-off. His mother visits him in the hospital and follows him home...

Although Nauris could use a tractor from his partner in crime, thief Andrejs, Nauris dreams of his own tractor. Two ordinary country men go to the usual scrap metal stealing endeavors until they drink too much, initiating a dispute that turns into a brutal murder and a struggle for survival. The film is based on real events.

Two border patrol agents come across a mysterious crashed van near the border of Latvia and Russia.