Leonīds Bērziņš

In the Shade of the Oak Tree

The story of rural people in 2004 - at the time when Latvia joined the European Union. A thorough study of the situation in rural Latvia over the course of the last thirty years, where the conflict between the familiar and the new, and desire and opportunity has fostered creative thinking in farmers looking to be masters of their own land. In the film we see a German farmer who bought property in Latvia; the head of a large parish; a family of young former citizens; eco lifestyle supporters - soybean growers, including an organic farm and its owner who takes a loan from a bank for the first time.

New Times at Crossroad Street

Ten years have passed since we made the film “Crossroad Street”, about a small street in the suburbs of the city of Riga. Now we’ve come back. Perhaps it was a sense of duty, perhaps nostalgia that brought us back – who knows? Perhaps it was both. Daiga, Aldis, Osis – they’re all our people. The first film had an impact on both the filmmakers and the residents of Crossroad Street. We found friends whom we want to meet again and again. Society has become more prosperous, several value systems coexist side-by-side. People often live in these systems as though they were in different worlds that never meet. We felt that the world inhabited by our people is sinking into oblivion, and so we wanted to show that it still has its own turbulence, that Crossroad Street resembles Latvia’s palm – the place where a fortune teller can see the lines of its destiny.

Zolitūde

Zolitude is inhabited mainly by immigrants. An extremely denational environment, a disorderly everyday life, depressing standard type architecture - these are the problems faced by the film's characters.