There's a song about a poet inviting people to his home, to a masquerade without any masks. Those who wore one, he stripped from them right on the threshold. Turns out the song may have been prophetic... learn why in the weekend events guide prepared by LSM's culture editors.
The time after New Year is spent in a cultural vacuum that starts filling up again about mid-January. However, as everyone in Latvia, or at least one of their relatives, has a story about the bravery of the 700,000 people who took part in the barricades, LSM's culture editors chose to dedicate this events guide to the history crossroads on which the Baltics stood 25 years ago.
"Hey, hello, Āgenskalns, Bastejkalns, Čiekurkalns!" goes one popular song relating the various 'mountains' (Latvian - kalns) of the country. Calling 200-meter hills 'mountains' seems like wishful thinking to many foreigners, however just as people generally love things there is very little of - like gold, or Latvia - so are Latvians very keen on using the precious skiing and snowboarding opportunities during the winter - and you are very much invited to join.
Remember when we announced "veļu laiks 2015" - the time when spirits of the dead supposedly walk the earth? Well, it's about to end on November 10 on the Mārtiņi celebration that marks the beginning of the 'time of ice' when swamps freeze and become passable by horse. And time of ice it is even now - though Rīga won't hit freezing temperatures until a bit later in November - with hockey in Liepāja, ice-cool disco in Rīga and verbal whips that cut like a cold steel knife in one Irish comedian's return to Latvia.
The Riga International Film Festival (IFF) First Award was bestowed Sunday upon Sergei Loznitsa for his film The Event, according to information on the festival website.
The title doesn't simply reflect the morbid obsessions of the author; it refers to veļu laiks, from September 29 to November 10, when veļi - mostly benign spirits of the dead - supposedly walk the earth in Latvia. It was customary to leave them meals in quiet places and to generally refrain from being loud during this period. Though we don't know whether people really keep quiet during this time anymore, there are plenty of cultural offerings ('meals') for the living and the dead in store for this weekend.
On October 15 the Riga International Film Festival (IFF) will kick off, showing over 80 new movies from all over Europe in what is definitely Latvia's largest movie event of the year. The Short Riga selection of short films has been unveiled recently, and foreign guests are welcome to attend the succinctly titled section of the IFF from October 21 to October 24.