Vilnis Kalnaellis

Thelma's Perfect Birthday

Thelma is a little penguin who is not like the others. She doesn’t like snow very much, or freezing water, and she wishes she could fly. Was that because she was born in the Great Forest, and partially raised by her best friends, Cat Vilhelm and Mouse Sophia? Living in the Land of Ice again, Thelma also worries about her upcoming birthday. What if Birthday doesn’t find her snow-covered house - will she have to stay for forever? When Thelma tries to organize a Birthday Party for her forest friends, she tumbles into a great adventure that will teach her all she needs to know to become a proper penguin.

Paulīnes stāsts

Latvia, 1949. Seventeen-year-old Pauline's safe and sunny youth gets shattered by the Soviet occupation forces as she's deported to Siberia. She now needs to focus her strengths to overcome the deprivation of food, exhausting work and torture, while trying to preserve her inner light and humanity in the face of evil.

The Dubna River Rascal

A little daring Mosquito does not know how to make friends. He is often intrusive and stinging. Everything changes when he gets into trouble. He understands his wrongdoings and starts to see good in others.

A Greyhound of a Girl

Mary is a 12-year-old Dublin schoolgirl bravely facing the fact that her beloved Granny is dying. But Granny can’t let go of life, and when a mysterious young woman turns up in Mary’s street with a message for Granny, Mary is pulled into an unlikely adventure. The woman is the ghost of Granny’s own mother, who has come to help her daughter say good-bye to her loved ones and guide her safely out of this world. She needs the help of Mary and her mother, Scarlett, who embark on a road trip to the past. Four generations of women travel on a midnight car journey. One of them is dead, one of them is dying, one of them is driving, and one of them is just starting out.

Crazy Fox And Doctors

The Crazy Fox is taken to a veterinary clinic, and the adventure of endless tests, twists and turns begins! Although the situation becomes extra challenging, when the doctor has to pull out fox’s bad tooth, the final medical diagnosis is – the Fox is healthy, but... crazy.

Crazy Fox

The Crazy Fox, familiar from the children’s books, is now roaming around a maritime village experiencing unusual and impetuous things – she saves a snail, overfeeds on pears, jumps up and down on a trampoline, becomes friends with a mermaid and helps her escape an aquarium.

Lotte and the Lost Dragons

Lotte gets a little sister named Roosi. Two scientists Karl and Viktor come to Gadgetville, they are taking part in a big folk song collecting competition. Whoever succeeds in recording the folk song of the world’s oldest animal species, wins the competition’s grand prize. Lotte and Roosi decide to help the scientists. Exciting and unexpected adventures await the sisters.

Lotte and the Lost Dragons

Lotte gets a little sister named Roosi. Two scientists Karl and Viktor come to Gadgetville, they are taking part in a big folk song collecting competition. Whoever succeeds in recording the folk song of the world’s oldest animal species, wins the competition’s grand prize. Lotte and Roosi decide to help the scientists. Exciting and unexpected adventures await the sisters.

Miracle Hunters: Zilaiskalns

Documentary charting research at an ancient holy site. Miracle Hunters: Zilaiskalns, is about Zilaiskalns (Blue Hill), an allegedly sacred place and its own local spirit man Anatolijs. The place is associated with the Marta of the Blue Hill, a legendary woman with extraordinary abilities.

Singing Hugo And His Incredible Adventures

When a chicken is kidnapped by two thieves, a lively adventure full of humor and with a surprising twist begin.

Land of Fate

While the two great powers of Europe were fighting during WWII, the strong family of the legendary Prometheus of Latgale, Andrīvs Jurdžs, was brutally shattered. Fleeing from the Communists, a few of the younger generation managed to escape to the West. The older generation remained in Latvia, but Stalin’s repression deported many to Siberia as “enemies of the state”. The family is scattered over the world, and the post-war genera-tion have never met. While in America, Peter accidentally discovers the documentary film “Perpetual Calendar”, and instantly recognizes his Latvian relatives. Brother and sister, Peter and Helena, follow their parents’ footsteps back to Latgale (Eastern Latvia) to learn more of their legendary ancestor and to finally meet relatives. The family’s search leads to Tomsk, Siberia..

The Golden Horse

An ancient Latvian folk tale is the basis for this colorful animated feature in the tradition of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. A vengeful sorceress casts a kingdom’s princess into a deep sleep at the top of an icy mountain, where she awaits release from the spell that will destroy the land. Of all the men vying for the honor, the shy outcast son of a family of thugs is the most unlikely. Director Kalnaellis brings a playful sense of humor to the characterizations and adds zippy contemporary elements including a chorus of wisecracking crows. (Gene Siskel Film Center)

In the Fog

Western frontiers of the USSR, 1942. The region is under German occupation. A man is wrongly accused of collaboration. Desperate to save his dignity, he faces an impossible moral choice.

The Perpetual Calendar

Latgale region of Latvia, 30 km from the border with Russia. Despite the Stalinist repressions, taking away property and lifes of innocent people, two families already in the 4-th generation have stayed in their own land and work on it day in and day out, making almost everything they need with their own hands. Making cheese and butter, brewing beer, shearing sheep, weaving ropes from linen, making split baskets – these and other traditional crafts are part of their everyda life. Just as the Latgalian language, which is broadly used in this region, although it is not included in the school programm and can‘t be used as an official language in state and local government institutions.

Lotte and the Moonstone Secret

Plucky young Lotte embarks on an adventure with her uncle Klaus to solve the mystery of three stones that a pair of hooded figures are attempting to retrieve.

Lotte and the Moonstone Secret

Plucky young Lotte embarks on an adventure with her uncle Klaus to solve the mystery of three stones that a pair of hooded figures are attempting to retrieve.

Funny Alphabet

We played with words We played all day until Alphabet was made

To Swallow a Toad

Once some "round" intellectuals and also "square" pragmatic realists lived in a town. The "rounds" were smart and successful. The reason of their success - they could swallow toads. But no toads were swallowed by a "square". They lived in peace until one day a "square" discovered that the "rounds" swallow toads.

Viewfinder

A blind man waits for the traffic light to turn green. He experiences visions that reveal his inner world and the emotions created by his blindness. With no connection to the real world, he lives in a dream within a dream.

When Apples Roll

Cat lives in an antique wood cabinet with his devoted friend Mouse. There is an apple orchard on the fringes of the old town. But this autumn, while Cat is picking apples, things turn out differently. All of a sudden a strange egg rolls into the orchard.

Three Suns

From a refugee of the WWII to president – that's the story of Vaira Vike-Freiberga. Losing her motherland and coming back to it. Latvian, refugee, emigrant, wife, mother, professor, scientist, president.

Veterinarian

A veterinarian routinely goes on house calls to treat sick animals. He is able to save most, but one time he arrives too late. The animal dies, and that breaks the veterinarian's heart. One night the animals that he has treated come to him in a dream. He receives love and forgiveness. When Veterinarian wakes up, his heart has healed.

Black Box

In Territory, untouched by globalisation, it's only strange individuals who are scurrying around. One of them – Hoggie – a creature of unknown origin. In search of a new brand Flying Hedgehog Ball arrives to the Territory. After various misunderstandings, an image of Hoggie is published on magazine covers all over the world. It's all because of Black Box.

Lotte from Gadgetville

Somewhere in Europe by a great sea stands a small village, where inventing all manner of domestic gadgets is held in great esteem. Every year the villagers organize an annual competition of new inventions. One of the best inventors in the village is Oskar, Lotte's father. His primary rival is Adalbert, whose wife also partakes in the competition. On the eve of the next competition, Lotte and her friend Bruno find a book soaked in the sea, from which Susumu, a gardener from distant Japan, climbs out. Susumu teaches the villagers some judo throws before a big judo competition, which the latter will eagerly use to facilitate their daily lives.

Lotte from Gadgetville

Somewhere in Europe by a great sea stands a small village, where inventing all manner of domestic gadgets is held in great esteem. Every year the villagers organize an annual competition of new inventions. One of the best inventors in the village is Oskar, Lotte's father. His primary rival is Adalbert, whose wife also partakes in the competition. On the eve of the next competition, Lotte and her friend Bruno find a book soaked in the sea, from which Susumu, a gardener from distant Japan, climbs out. Susumu teaches the villagers some judo throws before a big judo competition, which the latter will eagerly use to facilitate their daily lives.

Island of Doctor D.

Each spring, for many, many years, a new nurse has been sent to work on the island of Doctor D., but rumours persist that none have ever returned. Julia heads to the island to solve its mystery, but it turns out that she herself is the secret.

Insomnia

She comes at night, quiet as a cat, to take his sleep away until he feeds her. All she needs is milk brought by him somewhere between sleep and reality. Her name is Insomnia.

The Prickly

Once upon a time an old married couple lived in love and happiness, but they did not have any children until one day the old man found a small hedgehog in cabbages. So the fairy-tale about the endless power of love and faith begins, the fairy-tale about the Prickly.

Tale of the Palace

Two travellers are making their way to the Palace in hopes to find meaning of life. Do they know that this road is life-long?

Woman

A philosophical study and personal myth of creation of a woman and her two ways to encounter a man. Screened both at Woodstock and KROK, the film captivates viewers with the elusive and not wholly understandable inner world of a woman.

National Hero

A comic fantasy of the most famous characters in the Latvian literature. A story about their adventures throughout the 800 year-long history of Riga city.

Clara & Rubinstein

One day a common man finds himself in a hell of family life. How did he get there? It all started with such a romance – they met in a museum of contemporary art…

Little Devils

Little Devils revolves around two mischievous devils who make their way up from hell to a farmhouse in Latvia. The devils start pulling devilish pranks, such as putting the farmer to bed in the barn, and the bull to bed beside the farmer’s wife. When two thieves enter the scene, chaos ensues as they discover "the farmer" is a monster and "the bull" can talk.

Kirikou and the Sorceress

Drawn from elements of West African folk tales, it depicts how a newborn boy, Kirikou, saves his village from the evil witch Karaba.