Dzidra Ritenberga

Madwomen: to be a sparrow not a canary

A housewife confronts situations to which no sane response exists... “Madwomen: To Be a Sparrow Not a Canary” is an experimental found footage melodrama composed entirely out of film footage shot in Soviet Estonia from 1960 until 1969. An experimental collage creating an alternative narrative to the storylines in the animations, documentaries and feature films of that time period.

If We Live Through All This

Revolution of 1905 in Latvia.

Be My Mother-in-Law!

An adventurous love story of a veterinarian from Riga, a cheerful loser Andris.

Reflection in the Water

Based on a story by Janis Lapsa, written by Janis Lapsa and Andris Kolbergs, film is a singular work, filled with human warmth. It is a story about a talented surgeon Markalns, who after a serious personal crisis, returns to his native town in order to start his life anew. The attention is concentrated on the inner world of Markalns, his feelings in this so important period of his life, when to endure and to proceed means to regain the lost sense of life and himself. His character and emotional world opens in a wide scale: in collisions with colleagues, patients, friends, himself. He is contradictory, but even in moments of low spirits, virile. A real warmth and balance of mind is brought in the life of the outwardly robust and clumsy surgeon by a shy small-town girl Irita, called Doggie.

Keys to Paradise

Successful work and life of a brave militia captain who does not know much about human psychology.

My Frivolous Friend

Arvīds Lasmanis can't hold any job for long because he is not ready to tolerate deceit and slapdash work. He still has to feed his family, by chance he finds a well-paid job as a gravedigger. A friend helps Arvīds to find a place in a construction team, but other workers don't approve of Arvīds' high principles. His wife accuses him of not knowing how to make money, the family lives crammed in one room of a shared flat. The Soviet absurd comedy tells a story about a man who, while at odds with the system, won't lose his conscience and his true self, even if it means saying no to wealth and comfort.

The Large Amber

A band arrives late at the competition. They try to find the jury and show their performance.

Spring

Savely and Lelya are leading a quiet peaceful life in a forest reserve, in a small village with a mineral spring, where Savely brought his seriously ill wife. The seemingly routine life can not hide deep and tender love that came a bit too late...

Under the Same Roof

Mari has successfully led a collective farm in 1950s and fulfilled all tasks given from the authorities. Nonetheless, things in the collective farm become progressively worse. The Committee of the Communist Party sends its representative Peeter who learns that Mari acts as a tyrant for the local people. She has to resign during the elections of the new manager. Being without authority has a damaging effect on her so she starts to regain her position with the help of her old stalinist tricks.

Your Happiness

An inspector is torn between her conviction of there being a need to reconstruct a factory, and a love interest who asks of her not to do that in order for him to further his career.

Happiness Must Be Protected

Returning to his native village at the end of his military service, Victor (Yuri Sarantsev) brought his bride into the house - and soon they got married. Victor works on the collective farm with great enthusiasm, he is appointed a foreman, but the happiness of old Danila, Victor’s father, is overshadowed by dirty gossip - as if Victor’s father is not he, but Shandybovich, whose unseemly deeds were recently exposed by Victor.

Born of the Storm

German troops leave a small town located on the border of Western Ukraine and Poland. The Pilsudians seize power in the city. Bolshevik, who returned from prison, heads the underground revolutionary committee.

Malva

The title character, played by Dzidra Ritenberga, is the restless wife of a provincial village fisherman. Unwilling to dedicate herself to her husband, Malwa seeks out love from every man she meets. This results in a romantic triangle that is at once disarmingly simplistic and intensely dramatic. Malwa was the final directorial effort of Vladimir Braun, who died in 1957. Star Dzidra Ritenberga won a "Best Actress" award at the Venice Film Festival; co-stars Pavel Usovicenko and Anatoll Ighnaliev also earned praise for their realistic performances.