Dominiks Jarmakovičs

The Sleeping Beast

A gang of five children spend their summer in an abandoned factory complex. When they are forbidden to go there by the factory owner for safety reasons, the children decide to ignore the ban. This decision changes their lives forever and the friends face a grim confrontation.

Karmic Knot

In 1971 when Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union, a poor upbeat family of four - an engineer, a schoolteacher and their two daughters - move into a large house that they cannot afford to buy. The father's brother lends them money with the condition that the family starts an underground business of growing and selling rose cultivars to gardeners and collectors in Russia. United by the common purpose - to pay for the house and keep it - the family toils in their garden and greenhouse. In the process they become quite wealthy. But with the wealth comes an arrogance and sense of invincibility. As the Soviet Union starts to fall apart, the family also unravels. Facing external threats from racketeers, thieves, drug addicts, and losing all their hard-earned savings when the currency collapses, the family's ties grow tighter and tighter until one of them starts to suffocate.

Lotus

Alice von Trota returns to her father’s manor in Latvia in 1919 to sell it and start a new life. She meets the hostile resistance of the local workers and discovers she has been lured into a carefully tailored trap set by a demonic lawyer, a decadent underground organisation and its necrophile leader. While escaping the clutches of her “helpers”, she meets some silent-cinema enthusiasts and learns to use the cinematograph as a tool for healing and self-discovery, as a weapon against her enemies and as a way to create a masterpiece.

Five and a Half Love Stories in an Apartment in Vilnius, Lithuania

A series of vignettes situated in an apartment in Vilnius conceive of the complexities of desire and love as seen through the fleeting experiences of five Airbnb guests, each in differing states of romantic entanglement and crisis.

Wind-keeper

Katrīna is a typical city dweller who has lived in Mangaļsala all her life, but she has a less than typical passion. On one hand, Katrīna is a rational, young and well-educated professional, but on the other – an irresponsible child of nature, who keeps a dog, two cats and two horses in her limited urban space.

Christmas in the Jungle

Moving from Latvia to exotic Indonesia has proven to be quite a challenge for Paula’s (10) family. Her Mother has a hard time adapting to the country. Her sister, Kate (14), is entering puberty, and her Father’s workaholic nature is causing tension in the family. Luckily, the local boy Akhim (12) offers a ray of hope by telling Paula about special Shaman living in the jungle who has a superpower to bring Christmas everywhere. That must be Santa Claus himself! Kids join on a joyful adventure to find Christmas in the Jungle!

The Despair

Unable to deal with a personal crisis, Gatis is struggling with depression. He feels like he is burning out. By accident he ends up in a strange cult-type therapy group that seems to trigger his self healing process, though it feels like he is losing his sanity. Is he healing or going insane?

Invisible

Jonas (Dainius Kazlauskas) pretends to be blind and enters a TV dance contest, where he meets his attractive dance partner Saule (Paulina Taujanskaite). Soon they become the show's most popular contestants. While the whole nation thinks that Jonas is blind, Vytas (Darius Bagdziunas), an old acquaintance of Jonas, is released from prison. As reminders of the past keep creeping up on them, Vytas is suppressing contradictory feelings - to seek revenge or forgiveness in such a manipulative world - for sins that were and for sins to be made.

Project: Moving

Project: Moving sees a young professional explore and debate the trend of young people leaving Rīga for somewhere more suitable for living, particularly the town of Cēsis in the scenic Vidzeme region. "We are simply showing that right now Cēsis has become the hipster capital, and it's not bad at all. It's like a different kind of gentrification, and it affects not just a single quarter, but the entire town."