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Birthday:
05-09-1922
Deathday:
05-17-2022 (100 years)
Birthplace:
Latvian Republic
Biography
Rolands Kalniņš (1922-2022) was a Latvian film director. The last and only Latvian cinema aristocrat. Kalniņš possesses an intelligence of the soul. His films are smart, and the passage of time becomes them; forming new contexts reveals previously unread levels of content and subtext.
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Their works
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One Hundred Years Older
Act like Self
event2022
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What happens in the eyes of a 100-year-old filmmaker? Rolands Kalniņš, one of the great masters of Latvian cinema, sits down to have his photo taken and looks straight in the lens. Kalniņš’ life has spanned an authoritarian regime, a world war, long years under Soviet occupation and censorship, and retirement in independent Latvia. His films have been censored, destroyed, found and restored. But here, like Herz Frank once did with a child, for ten minutes we shall observe the micro-emotions of a man who has dedicated his life to film. Confronted directly by the tool of his trade, the camera. As we face Kalniņš eye to eye, we hear the sounds of his present, and the memories of his past.
Purva bridējs - Uldis Pūcītis
Act like Self
event2020
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A TV documentary about Latvian actor Uldis Pūcītis, featuring fragments from many of his films ("Swap Treader", "Four White Shirts" and others), as well as stories by people who knew him - actors and directors, former lovers and classmates.
Atmaksa
Director
event1962
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A film about combating venereal diseases.
Bitter Wine
Director
event2007
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Donats is a modern-day Don Juan juggling the various women in his life seemingly without any consequences, until he falls in love with Agnese. Her husband, Ralfs, turns out to be a formidable opponent.
The Game Is Taking Place Anyway
Director
event1985 star_border 8
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A businessman and a footballer are murdered before an important football match in Prague. Investigation has to be started.
Tapers
Director
event1991 star_border 7
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The path of the main character to the tops of creative work is a chain of victories and losses, in which gains and irretrievable losses alternate.
Male Games in the Open Air
Director
event1978
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Relations of two sportsmen who often forget that they are not the only ones in the stadium.
Rocky Road
Director
event1983
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Based on the popular novel of the same title by Vilis Lācis. Latvia, the 1930s. Roberts Līviņš, the son of a dockhand, becomes an architect by his own efforts, thanks to arduous work and talent. But in his relationship with Līvija, the daughter of the rich entrepreneur Ulpe, Roberts realizes that the high society might look down on his common origins as well as his sister Alise, a hairdresser, and her boyfriend Ēriks, an opportunist and former boxer.
Rock and Splinters
Director
event1967 star_border 6.7
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During World War II three best friends are mobilized into the Waffen-SS Latvian Legion. Years later their fates continue to intertwine, as memories of war loom in back of their minds.
Ceplis
Director
event1972 star_border 4.2
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Latvia in the 1920s. The enterprising Edgars Ceplis establishes a company to produce bricks from Latvian clay for export. Many are involved in his project, hoping for the huge profits the venture promises. Ceplis soon becomes infatuated with his office typist Austra Zīle and starts neglecting the business...
Four White Shirts
Director
event1967 star_border 6
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Cezars Kalnins installs telephones by day and composes pop songs by night. His band has a hard time receiving the permit from Soviet censorship authorities for a public debut. A member of the Culture Committee superficially listens to Cēzars' songs and deems the lyrics "unsuitable and frivolous” and "unfit for the Soviet youth”, and is later powerless to stop the grindstone of public debate, which she has herself initiated.
Three Days of Reflection
Director
event1982 star_border 7
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Head of the CID and his colleagues are investigating a serious crime but the main witnesses are of no help.
Eternal Faust
Director
event1999
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A story about the significance of Goethe’s Faust in the development of Latvian literature, language, publishing, culture and theatre. The video highlights the intersection of world cultures and their mutual development, as well as the courage of the people to break the boundaries of stereotypic attitudes.
If We Live Through All This
Director
event1987 star_border 6
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Revolution of 1905 in Latvia.
Four Springs
Director
event1975
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The wonderful power of folk songs and dances that helps to notice the beauty of the world and human relations.
The Warrior of the Queen
Director
event1970
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The hard work plays an important role in the personal growth of a runner.
In the Underworld
Director
event1963
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A story about children helping the Soviet Army during the war.
Conversation with a Queen
Director
event1980 star_border 6
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A cinematic portrait of the actress and performer Vija Armane.
Maritime Climates
Director
event1974
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The colourful musical comedy Maritime Climates could have been a triumph of smart political satire – if people in positions of power hadn’t got worried by the rushes they saw, which lead them to terminate the production. In 1992, Rolands Kalniņš made this edit of the remaining material – an elegy to lost hopes and illusions.
The Times of the Surveyors
Second Assistant Director
event1968 star_border 5.5
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Land surveyors arrive in two parishes to measure and redistribute manor land. The rivalry between both feoffees for land and woman begins.
The Child of Man
Producer
event1992 star_border 5.8
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A six-year-old boy plots to stop his "sweetheart", a grown-up woman in his pre-World War II Latvian village, from marrying.
Ilze
Director
event1959
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A political film based in Latvian countryside in 1947.
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