The traditional May 4 Latvian film marathon organized by the National Cinema Center is taking place for the 20th time on the national holiday, which has been held for several years now in two parallel formats – in person at the “Splendid Palace” cinema and worldwide online, on the “filmas.lv” portal. Both Marathon formats are available to viewers free of charge, and both programs pay some attention to the fact that the first days of May mark the 20th anniversary of Latvia’s admission to the European Union.
The broadest section of the Latvian film marathon on May 4 is screenings in both halls of the “Splendid Palace” cinema; the festive program will start at 13:00 in the Great Hall, where the first, as always, will be an animation screening for children – the latest puppet film “Burkāns neparastais” of the “Animation Brigade” studio (premiere, directed by Inese Pavėne) and nine other films by different studios and directors, shot in these 20 years. In the Great Hall of the cinema, the documentary film “Potnieks par Podnieku. Laika liecinieks” (2024) by directors Antra Cilinskas and Anna Vidulejas and a selection of short films by young authors will be screened, while the evening premiere this year will be director Dzintra Gek’s documentary film “Juris Jurjāns. Seven days with painting, speaking, silence.”
In the small hall of the “Splendid Palace” cinema, four screenings are planned from 2:30 p.m., two new feature films will be shown there – director Elza Gauja’s touching love story for seniors “Postcard from Rome” (2024) and Lienes Linde’s thirty-year-old tragicomedy “Black Velvet” (2024 ) – and two documentaries – the portrait of the talented, energetic and titled skier Patricija Eidukas “Patricia” (2024) by directors Dāvida Ernsthreit and Inese Kļava and the historical story “Klucis. The Wrong Latvian” (2008) by director Pēteras Krylov – about the “Latvian operations” of the Stalin era “victims of the 20th century In the 1930s, the artist of Latvian origin Gustavus Kluci. At the end of the evening, with the onset of darkness, a traditional open-air screening in the forecourt of the cinema (Splendid Garden) is planned – expanding the theme of the personality of the documentarian Jura Podnieks, which was announced in the Great Hall, his most popular film “Is it easy to be new?” will be shown. (1986), which made Juri Podnieka famous throughout Europe.
The holiday program of the NKC portal “filmas.lv” will include several films related to Latvia’s entry into the European Union, the most special of which is the anthology of short documentary films “ES” (2004), which was created by 12 directors, each filming a very different character in different parts of Latvia , but on the same day – September 20, 2003, when Latvia voted for or against joining the European Union. New feature films – “Mother’s milk” (2023) by director Ināra Kolmanes and “Saule śpid 24 hūši” (2023) by director Jura Poškus with Andri Keiša in the lead role – will also be available online. The portal’s film program will be available on May 4 around the clock around the world (depending on the local time of each country).
A frame from the movie “The sun shines 24 hours”. Photo: Filmas.lv
