The Hostage

Laila Pakalniņa is a Latvian art-house filmmaker. She graduated from the Moscow Film Institute (VGIK), Department of Film Direction, in 1991. A director and scriptwriter of 31 documentaries, 5 shorts, and 5 fiction features, altogether she has 41 films, 2 children, 1 husband, 2 dogs and 2 bicycles. Her films have screened in official programmes at Cannes, Venice, Berlinale, Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Rome and other international festivals, where they have won numerous awards.