Along with the film programmes, which are built so as to reach out to everyone from the most demanding film connoisseurs to those still foreign to the art of cinema, for the entire ten days of the festival various talks, lectures, and seminars will take place. Some will be specially organised for the industry professionals, while the majority will be open to public. As part of the festival the first international film market in Latvia will be held – the Riga IFF Forum, thanks to a special collaboration between the National Film Centre and the Latvian Investment and Development Agency. The Film Museum, FIPRESCI Latvija, Ekrans and Latvian Academy of Culture are jointly organising a scientific conference on the works of the Latvian film director Jānis Streičs. There will also be several public panel discussions including those born in partnership with the international media outlets Radio Svoboda and Isskustvo Kino, as well as young critics’ talks, Q&As with film authors, parties and much more.
Some notable films featured in this year’s Riga IFF:
This year the festival will again open with a Latvian production. Vitaly Mansky’s documentary "Relatives" will have its national premiere. The director, who in his previous film, "Under the Sun", studied the perfect life in North Korea, this time will allow you into his family’s cinematic album which will also serve as a mirror that reflects the rift in the Ukrainian society of today.
The festival's own international feature film competition, which started last year and includes films restricted to no particular genre, this year includes the Afghan director Sharbano Sadata’s film “Wolf and Sheep”, a documentary style feature inspired by her own experience in the rural Middle East, and an Iceland and British co-production "Show of Shows" created from historic circus footage featuring an original score by members of Sigur Ros. Alexander Mindadze’s film "Dear Hans" has already been dubbed the most vivid and sophisticated Russian film event of the year. Another competing feature, which has reaped awards in Karlovi Vari and is travelling to Toronto, is Ivan Tverdosky’s notorious "Zoology", a film about a woman who suddenly grows a tail.
The Riga IFF Selection programme will have the Latvian premiere of the actor Brady Corbet’s directorial debut "The Childhood of a Leader", based on Jean Paul Sartre’s short story that examines the painful childhood experience of Benito Mussolini. Prized at the Venice Film Festival, the film stars the actors Thom Sweet, Liam Cunninghem, Benerice Bejo, Robert Patinsson and Stacy Martin and features a score by Scott Walker. The well-known director Andrea Arnold’s latest picture "American Honey" is her take on Harmony Korine’s "Spring Breakers" – just as loud and explicit and full of musical and subcultural references. The programme also includes the film "Cemetery of Splendor" by one of the most original Asian film auteurs Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
The festival’s retrospective and cinematic research programme "In Kino Veritas" this year brings forward the films and authors known for their unconventional approach to narrative in cinema throughout history until today. The documentary "The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Maddin" is, in a way, the key to the entire programme that wishes to study the not so obvious relationship between cinema and storytelling. It also documents the filming process of Guy Maddin's "The Forbidden Room", starring Geraldine Chaplin, Udo Kier and Roy Dupuis, a film also found on this programme. Other prominent films will include the cult classic – Chris Marker’s 1962 film "La Jetée" on which another classic "12 Monkeys" is based and Laurie Anderson’s latest documentary "Heart of a Dog" and a retrospective of Ingmar Bergman’s "Persona", which was first premiered exactly half a century ago.
One of films in the Nordic Highlights programme that is a collaborative effort together with the embassies of Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark as well as the Danish Cultural Institute and Norden is the infamous director Lars von Trier’s associate Thomas Winterberg’s film "The Commune", which has nothing left of Dogma’s commandments, yet it is, in the best sense, a fine example of traditional Nordic cinema, that has brought to screen the freethinking spirit of the nineteen-seventies. Another Danish picture In Your Hands examines the difficult topic of euthanasia and does this in a painfully personal manner. A vivid example of Finnish nature documentary is “Tale of a Lake” that brings together national mythologies, narratives, the underwater world and its inhabitants.
The programme Artdocfest/Riga continues with raising the bar set by its curator and the president of its Russian counterpart ArtDocFest – Vitaly Mansky. The programme includes Sergei Loznitsa’s "Austerlitz", which examines the former concentration camps that are now museums, "Ukrainian Sheriffs", co-produced by VFS Films from Latvia, and Alisa Kovalenko’s "Alice in WARland”, whose director was taken captive during the making of the film.
The programme Kids Weekend (October 15-16) will of offer a selection animations and films for the youngest of viewers. One of the most notable works to be screened is the Belgian and French co-production "Birds of Passage" which this year was named the best European children’s film.
Meanwhile, "Lielais Kristaps. A Selection" is a Riga IFF programme consisting of the latest national gems that the festival usually dedicates to the Latvian national award Lielais Kristaps while not necessarily following the list of recently prized contestants, leaving space for surprises.
46 short films and video comprise the three competitions of the "Short Riga" programme: Baltic student, Baltic music video and the International competition. The curators have watched more than a thousand films from their neighbouring countries and the rest of the world. This year the International programme also includes works of Latvian origin: Anete Melece’s animation "Analysis Paralysis", that will have it's premiere during the festival, and Madara Dišlere’s "Gardener".
The festivals programmes and later also the events calendar and ticket information will be available on the festivals website rigaiff.lv
