The festival program includes brand new Latvian films, cinema classics, films from the Centenary, documentary cinema, and animation; the films will be available to viewers on filmas.lv from November 11 to November 19, while the three most recent feature films – November 18 to 19, representatives of the film center said.
The National Film Center portal filmas.lv, which ensures wider accessibility of Latvian cinema art to the public, is now traditionally offering regular online festivals to viewers – a selection of films that can be viewed free of charge throughout the world and during a specific time period. This year's festivities are co-organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs's Diaspora support program, and the Patriot Week offering includes seven full-length feature films, one full-length animation film, two documentaries, and five animated short films.
The most recent films of the festival are currently still in active circulation at world festivals and other distribution events, so they are included in the free offer for only two days on November 18 and 19. One of them is Viesturs Kairišs' latest work, “January” (2022), which tells the story of young people's feelings at an important moment in history for Latvia and has received the national film award “Lielais Kristaps” as the best film of the year.
The social drama “Sisters” by director Linda Olte (2022), which is also noticed and rewarded at international film festivals, will also be available over the weekend – a story about the desperate desire of two nurses raised in a children's home to find their mum's love. The third film of the festive weekend is director Dzintars Dreibergs' “Blizzard of Souls” (2019), a war drama that has already garnered record audience interest in Latvian cinemas and also several national film awards.
The Patriot Week films will be accessible in a special section of the filmas.lv portal.
