21/12/2021 - The movies, available on the body’s dedicated portal filmas.lv, were selected by a team of 30 experts and span three decades of Latvian cinema

This month, the National Film Centre of Latvia is celebrating its 30^th anniversary. For this special occasion, the country’s leading public film institution, established in 1991 after the restoration of the country’s independence, will present a special jubilee selection consisting of 30 titles, expertly picked by a team of 15 film theorists and 15 filmmakers.

Said titles will be available on the institution’s portal filmas.lv, free of charge and all across Latvia. To allow viewers to thoroughly explore the most emblematic films of each decade, a selection of ten movies representing each decade is being published on the filmas.lv portal for three weeks in a row throughout December. From 8 December, films made at the end of the 20th century (1991-2000) have been made available. These were followed by a selection of ten prominent films produced at the beginning of the 21st century (2001-2010), published on 14 December, and then a line-up of more recent titles released in the period 2011-2021, online from today, 21 December. The movies added to the portal will be available for viewing without any time limit imposed on them, thus enriching the digital collection already available to the Latvian audience.

After starting operations on 15 December 1991, the film centre witnessed the rise of a generation of enthusiastic filmmakers, even though the production of features was still financially challenging in the first few years of that decade. Later on, the industry entered a recovery phase, enabling the production of several features in parallel, and it racked up its first successes, such as Laila Pakalniņa’s short The Ferry (winner of the FIPRESCI Award at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival), as well as seeing releases by veterans, such as Ivars Seleckis’ New Times at Crossroads Street (1999). The other titles from this first, tough decade included Jānis Streičs’ The Child of Man (1991), Laila Pakalniņa’s The Shoe (1991), Jānis Putniņš’ Meditation on Violence (1993), Una Celma’s Egg Lady (2000), Nils Skapāns’ Let’s Fly? (1994), Rozes Stiebra and Ansis Bērziņš’ Ness and Nessie (1991), Jānis Streičs’ The Mill of Fate (1997) and Aigars Grauba’s Dangerous Summer (2000).

The first decade of the 21st century saw the Latvian film industry benefiting from more robust production support and regular state funding. In 2002, Latvia became a member of Eurimages and Creative Europe – MEDIA, thus European funds became available for films produced domestically, making it possible for the nation to embark on more financially demanding projects. The titles featured in the 2001-2010 line-up are Herz Frank’s autobiographical feature Flashback (2002), Laila Pakalniņa’s poetic, observational documentary Dreamland (2004), Viestur Kairish’s musical documentary Romeo and Juliet (2004), Pēteris Krilovs’ portrait film Klucis. The Deconstruction of an Artist (2008), Askolds Saulītis’ Keep Smiling! (2003), Andis Mizišs’ slice of life focusing on two squatters The Worm (2005), Roze Stiebra’s animated film I Danced, I Played (2007), Aigars Grauba’s War of Independence-set drama Defenders of Riga (2007), Juris Poškus’ debut feature Monotony (2007) and Gatis Šmits’ dramedy Return of Sergeant Lapins (2010), based on the director’s previous stage play That Happened to Them.

The last decade saw the industry grow further, with a steady increase in the number of cinemagoers and the celebration of the country’s 100^th anniversary with 16 brand-new films produced through a dedicated funding programme. Two of these – Ivars Seleckis’ To Be Continued... [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Anna Viduleja’s Homo Novus – are available on the platform along with several award-winning films such as Viestur Kairish’s World War II drama The Chronicles of Melanie [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (2016, the Latvian entry for the 90^th Academy Awards), Laila Pakalniņa’s black-and-white tragicomedy Dawn [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (the 2015 Oscars hopeful), Dzintars Dreibergs’ World War I drama Blizzard of Souls [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2019, the most-watched film since the restoration of Latvian independence) and Gints Zilbalodis’ animated film Away [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gints Zilbalodis
film profile] (2019, the winner of Annecy’s prestigious Contrechamp Award). This selection is enriched by the presence of Jānis Nords’ Mother I Love You [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2013), Juris Poškus’ Kolka Cool (2011), Ivars Zviedris and Inese Kļava’s Documentarian (2012), and Signe Baumane’s Rocks in My Pockets [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Signe Baumane
film profile].

The filmas.lv portal is considered one of the body’s key contributions to the development of the local film industry. The platform was launched in 2005 as a database for Latvian films, and it has allowed users to watch hand-picked titles since 2009. Starting from 2015, the catalogue has been regularly updated and expanded, providing the public with the opportunity to watch Latvian films throughout the country’s territory (and, on special occasions, worldwide), free of charge. Currently, filmas.lv offers its users more than 300 Latvian films as well as dedicated educational programmes for schools.Moreover, a line-up of films subtitled in English and available worldwide can be accessed here.