After two years of online screenings only due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year sees a welcome return to the big screen with eight screenings plus surprises and extras.
However, within the framework of the marathon, the films will also be shown in the format of an online festival on the portal filmas.lv for the whole world to watch along.
The Latvian Film Marathon on May 4 will return to the Splendid Palace cinema this year, offering spectators free live screenings both inside and outside.
In order to watch a movie in the cinema, an invitation with a registered seat in the cinema hall must be activated before the screening. Invitations can be received at the box office of the Splendid Palace cinema from April 27 or registered electronically on the cinema website HERE. Films will be shown in the cinema with English subtitles.
The program of the Latvian film marathon in the cinema will begin with the honoring of the director Rolands Kalniņš (1922) in the Great Hall at 13:00 - the Latvian cinema maestro will turn 100 in May, and the old master promises to come to the Honorary Screening himself.
Rolands Kalniņš's contribution to the history of Latvian cinema will be honored with his most famous film Four White Shirts (1967, restored in 2017), plus performances from group Carnival Youth and the premiere of a new film created as a tribute to Kalniņš.
The traditional screening of Latvian animated films is planned in the Great Hall at 15:00 - the latest films for children of different ages, some of them already in high demand at world film festivals.
There will also be premieres of two new feature films on May 4 in the Great Hall of the cinema. The documentary Home from director Laila Pakalniņa and cameraman Gints Bērziņš will be screened (screening 17:00), while director Ivars Zviedris has just finished the documentary Bach vs. Covid , which he started filming two years ago in the first days of the pandemic.
In the Small Hall of the cinema this year, the program of the Latvian Film Marathon on May 4 is in one way or another connected with Ukraine and the ongoing war. The documentary Mariupol (2016) will be screened at 15:30. The film's director, Lithuanian Mantas Kvedaravičius (1976-2022), filmed city life shortly after the start of the war in 2014, when the microworld war of the film's various heroes had not yet shattered, but rumbled on the edge as an obscure threat. In 2022, the director returned to Mariupol with a movie camera and was killed in early April. Now his film has become a monument to both the devastated city and the author himself.
At the end of the evening, with the onset of darkness, a screening is planned at the open-air cinema Splendid Garden - the animated film Jacob, Mimmi and Talking Dogs (2019, directed by Edmunds Jansons) with Ukrainian subtitles.
On May 4, the National Cinema Center will also offer films for screenings in the vicinity of Riga - Mežaparks Grand Stage, Ilguciems and Imanta, with various different films on offer.
A different holiday program will be available on the National Film Centre's portal filmas.lv worldwide on May 4, according to the local time in each country.
For full details of films, locations and screening times, see the official event website: https://www.nkc.gov.lv/lv/jaunums/4-maija-latvijas-filmu-maratons-izzino-programmu
