"Kārlis and Laura are just the heroes required by the Latvian Code format. They're patriotic, energetic, promising, and young and beautiful...
"We didn't want to wail and complain that everything is bad and how young doctors have it really bad in Latvia. Then we had the idea to invert the whole thing, to look at it with irony hiding behind hortatory sentences and a cheerful demeanor.
"Because we hear especially the politicians saying that journalists and culture people should not complain or show negativity, but rather to raise the Latvians' self-esteem, to praise themselves and to make patriotic and inspiring hero movies," said co-director Inese Kļava.
"We took a little from the style of the cinema journal Soviet Latvia. We looked at it and tried reanimating the times in the eyes of today. Now if we look at the chronicles of Soviet Latvia, there are often some lies there but they're presented in such official tones. We try to do the same. Maybe it's the other way around with us, it's not lies we're telling but rather we try to explain, in a unique way, things that have something wrong with them," said co-director Ivars Zviedris.
Residents. Documentary, Latvia. 2017. Directors: Inese Kļava, Ivars Zviedris.
Watch it above with English-language subtitles.
