Latvijas Televizija

An attempt to understand the people chanting "Atlaist Saeimu!" (Sack the parliament!) year after year. Though rarely attracting a great deal of notice, there are always individuals collecting signatures for a referendum to dissolve the parliament for one reason or another, or simply standing outside the building and reciting their familiar mantra. Latvian governments change fairly often, but the parliament has been dissolved in line wth the Constitution only once, in 2010 (in 1934 it was dissolved unconstitutionally following a coup by Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis). The actual parliament building in Old Rīga was, however, attacked in January 2009 during a very rare violent protest which precipitated the fall of Ivars Godmanis' cabinet. The documentary zips back and forth in time giving portraits of various different people and political forces pushing the idea to "Atlaist Saeimu" for different reasons.

In a house soon to be demolished lives a little girl. When her mother dies, she is forced to look for shelter at the side of a man, the only one still left in the house. He is a strange, somber man with his only companions being two endlessly trustworthy dogs - Monk and Prince.

Alekss arrives at the Murjāņi sports school to become a champion. He’s introduced to the ironclad daily routine, which starts at 7 AM and ends at 8 PM, with practices twice a day and the rest of the time filled with lessons, exams and homework, just like at any other school. He has to wash his own clothes, make his own bed and clean his own room. The second hero of the film, Kristaps, has been living at Murjāņi for three years now. He takes part in the European Youth Olympic Festival, where everyone is strong but only a select few make it to the winners’ podium. Luck is not on Kristaps’ side in this case, and what he gets are only harsh reprimands and tears in his eyes. This slice of life at Murjāņi shows the difficult path to victory through sweat, tears and hard work.

Little Anna is waiting for her first Christmas.

In September 3, 1997, an art project - the annual exhibition of the Soros Center for Contepmporary Arts-Riga was opened. The centre - piece of the event was the experimental opera "Rolstein on the beach", that was shown in Dailes theatre. The music and libretto of the opera was written by Hardijs Ledins and Kaspars Rolsteins, and popular musicians, actors and well - known public persons took part in the opera.

Russian Federation, December 31, 1999. After President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of the country. From that day and for a year, Vitaly Mansky's camera documented Putin's rise to power. The story of a privileged witness. The harsh explanation of the reason why politics is the art of possibility of achieving the best with the support of many, but also of giving the worst in return.

The documentary film "Dream Cat", produced by the Latvian Television program "Forbidden method", explains and analyses how the Latvian animated film "Flow" reached the top of world cinema, winning the most prestigious film industry awards "Golden Globe", "Oscar" and many others.

A group of children from the capital city of Riga arrive in the small border village of Ipiķi. The townsfolk immediately know that "they aren’t locals, they’re from the capital. You can tell by the way they dress.” The differences between the city and rural children are quite evident. While the country children nimbly climb trees, play games with knives and axes, and hide in their self-made tree house, the city children buy sweets in the town store, hoping to buy the goodwill of the local children. However, gaining entry into the tree house is not so simple.

Guttenmorgen leaves the government office to see how people live in the countryside, and on the way he gets stuck in Vienciem.

The film focuses on a bizarre state of affairs in the northern city of Valmiera where the corpse of a man has lain for nine years because of complex and contradictory communications between the relatives and various responsible institutions. The situation could easily have come from the pen of Gogol or Kafka, but is all too real and prompts questions about the more general problem of bureaucracy in Latvia.

'Vadātājs' is an ancient Latvian mythological creature that leads people to Nowhere. As Latvia has been declared the most superstitious country in the EU, it is important to understand – what do we believe in? Three young filmmakers – a director, cinematographer and sound girl – question if Latvia is a lost country and if a Vadātājs has achieved enormous power by leading Latvian society into confusion. A search for a contemporary Vadātājs*, and the understanding of the origins of confusion within people in the 21st century.

For more than a decade, wildfires of unprecedented force have been devouring our lives, homes and forests at a steady pace. Each year, 350 million hectares of forest go up in smoke, the equivalent of six times the size of France. In the US, the fire season now lasts up to two months longer than a generation ago, and the surface burnt annually has multiplied by three. This film sets out on a gripping journey of investigation from Europe to the US, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia to follow the work of a global team of dedicated firefighters, scientists and fire experts as they investigate why our forests are going up in flames, and act on an unexpected discovery: if we want to save our forests, homes, health and our climate, we need to radically change our attitude towards fire and the way we fight wildfires.

Standing near the reptile section in a zoo we can learn a lot about the animals on both sides of the separating glass.

Instead of Einars Pelšs' eighth poetry book, he publishes his collected works, but the buyer of the book receives an ordinary brick. He translates the authors of the Russian Golden Age and publishes them under his own name, challenging the boundaries of literature. Is a poet who makes fun of art unique or exactly what we expect from contemporary authors? Einarrative is an extraordinary story that portrays the narrative of the life of Einārs Pelšs. In the film, this narrative is an experience of contrasting changes both in its visual style and in Einars’ poetic works and personality, allowing him to get involved in the depiction of the narrative himself, making the film as Einārs Pelšs' audiovisual collected works.

Līgatne river ferry crossing takes locals, tourists, passers-by and cars from early spring to the fall over river Gauja. It's the last of what were once many such 'rope ferries' across Gauja, but it remains more than an historical oddity and plays an important part in many lives. At just 12 square meters, the wooden ferry nevertheless encompasses an intriguing and sometimes surprising selection of what constitutes 21st-century Latvia.

This year Gunārs Cilinskis would have turned 90 (May 23, 1931–July 25, 1992) – the famous film and stage star passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on July 25, 1992, on the waves of Lake Baltezers while water skiing, at the age of only 61. This documentary and biographical melodrama covers the entire life of Gunārs Cilinskis. "The most handsome man in London" – Gunārs Cilinskis (as his character Michael Goslin was called in the popular film "Theatre," directed by Jānis Streičs, 1978) was a man who did not expose his life to journalists at the time.

Dinārs is a Latvian schlager singer popular with the ladies and known for his big cat mane. The eponymous film follows his path over a turbulent season of work.

A documentary about three Latvian female spies that have influenced events of international importance, – Marija Emma Šūle, Melita Norvuda, and Kristīne Čilvere.

The film tells the story of the Shendelev family, whose work is closely connected to the underwater world. For them, it is not just a job - it is a matter of the heart with a mission: to make the Baltic Sea, one of the most polluted environments in the world, cleaner and more alive. At the bottom of the sea lie not only sunken ships and planes, but also thousands of lost fishing nets - the so-called "ghost nets", which silently kill fish, seals, birds and other marine inhabitants. The family and their colleagues dive into the depths to find these nets and bring them to the surface. Their daughter Valentina follows in her parents' footsteps, but is still searching for her place in the world.

The most difficult moment in parents’ lives is when their children leave home. Valentina and her long-awaited and selflessly raised son Ruslan, live in a small Latvian town. Ruslan is now a teenager and a talented young pianist. The town they live in is too small for him to develop his talent, so he should head to Riga to continue his studies. Through this film we follow along the experience and the feelings of the mother who should let her son go - and leave her.