Deconstructed silence in the film “Maria’s silence” / NABA / / Latvijas Radio

From April 4, cinemas across Latvia will start screening the new film “Mary’s silence” by director Dāvjas Sīmanis, made by the “Mistrus Media” studio, which has already had its world premiere at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and received the prestigious Ecumenical Jury Award. Tonight on Radio NABA you will hear a conversation with the director of the film Dāvi Sīmani.

The film “Maria’s Silence” is a historical drama based on the life story of the famous theater and film actress Marija Leiko and tells about the last years of her life, when the actress goes to the Soviet Union to take care of her granddaughter and becomes a witness to the extermination of Latvians initiated by Stalin and victims.

“For the Latvian audience and also internationally, Marija Leiko’s life story describes in a sense the time that we usually call the world’s confusion: the period that began with the First World War, the revolution in Russia and Germany, then also the interwar period with the formation of autocratic, authoritarian regimes. Marija Leiko’s personality somehow shines through these periods, these different places and describes them very vividly with her experience or presence. This is perhaps the most important thing – she is a historical prism through which we can look at the events of that time not from one narrow angle, but illuminating the entire first half of the 20th century with its characteristic political and cultural vicissitudes, including the historical disasters that occurred at that time happened”, said the director of the film Dāvis Sīmanis.

The main roles in the film are played by Olga Šepicka, Artūrs Skrastiņš, Įrts Ķesteris, Inese Kučinska and Vilis Daudziņš, the film’s creative team – director Dāvis Sīmanis, cameraman Andrejs Rudzāts, screenwriters Dāvis Sīmanis, Magali Negroni and Tabita Rudzāte, artist Kristīne Jurjāne, make-up artist Beate Rjabovska , composers Paulius Kilbauskas and Justas Štaras, editing director Ieva Veiverīte, executive producer Ilze Krūmiņliepa and producers Gints Grūbe and Inese Boka-Grūbe. The film was made in the Latvian film studio “Mistrus Media” in co-production with the Lithuanian film company “Broom Films”.