Each week we are bringing you a thought-provoking and entertaining offering from the most recent run, complete with English-language subtitles, to give you a look at parts of Latvian life and personalities you might not normally encounter. To turn on subtitles, click the icon at the bottom of the player above.
The third in the season is "Body Bureaucracy" (Birokrātijas līķis), by legendary director Ivars Zviedris which we have mentioned before here on LSM, but which is now available to watch in full with subtitles. This is the fifth "Latvian Code" short film made by Zviedris during the strand's ten-year history.
The film focuses on a bizarre state of affairs in the northern city of Valmiera where the corpse of a man has lain for nine years because of complex and contradictory communications between the relatives and various responsible institutions.
The situation coud easily have come from the pen of Gogol or Kafka, but is all too real and prompts questions about the more general problem of bureaucracy in Latvia. If you do watch it, be aware that it starts with a warning that some viewers may find some scenes uncomfortable.
