Close-Up: Latvia: Cinema between Memory and the Present
Following Estonia in 2025, FFC continues its journey through the Baltic states. Close-Up: Latvia demonstrates the many ways in which contemporary Latvian cinema engages with history and the present: from large-scale films for broad audiences to crime stories, animation and arthouse cinema, ranging from playful and idiosyncratic approaches to powerful explorations of historical subjects.
In many of these films, historical developments continue to reverberate in the present. Latvia shares borders with Russia and Belarus, and the Soviet past remains an important part of the country’s collective memory. At the same time, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the tense security situation on NATO’s eastern flank have lent renewed urgency to questions of independence, identity and belonging. ESCAPE NET and ULYA, for example, reveal just how closely political developments and individual lives can be intertwined.
Both films draw on the biographies of two defining figures in Latvian basketball. ESCAPE NET takes us to Soviet-era Riga, where Dzidra Uztupe fights for her career while her brother, living in exile, makes the family politically suspect and attracts the attention of the KGB. ULYA traces Uljana Semjonova’s journey from a remote Old Believer community to the highest levels of international sport. Both women played for teams from the Latvian SSR that competed against formidable rivals from other parts of the Soviet Union. Their achievements thus also became an expression of Latvian self-assertion within the USSR’s sporting system.
In RED CODE BLUE, Latvia is already independent, yet in 1990s Riga a young police officer still encounters old hierarchies, arbitrary power and an entrenched culture of silence. THE BOG transforms a decades-old murder case into a dark thriller about guilt, loyalty and a village community that turns against the investigating police officer.
Other films reveal further facets of Latvian cinema. Gints Zilbalodis’ dialogue-free animated film FLOW, winner of the 2025 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, follows a cat and its animal companions through a flooded world devoid of humans. In CAT ON MY MIND, acclaimed director Laila Pakalniņa uses old found negatives to create a playful cinematic poem about photography and memory. FLESH, BLOOD, EVEN A HEART, meanwhile, approaches death, grief and a difficult father-daughter relationship with a light touch. A varied short-film programme and a panel discussion on the history, present and future of Latvian cinema round off the section.
View from the Black Mountain: New Voices from Montenegro
Around 2,000 kilometres further south, View from the Black Mountain: Montenegro Special takes audiences to the Adriatic. The programme introduces a national cinema that has become increasingly professional and internationally connected in the 20 years since Montenegro gained independence.
Among other settings, the programme ventures into Montenegro’s mountainous landscape, where in TO HOLD A MOUNTAIN a mother and daughter fight to protect their home from being used as a military training ground. SUPERMARKET chooses an entirely different setting: a homeless man secretly makes himself at home inside a hypermarket.
The short films turn their attention to everyday life, relationships and social tensions. Young filmmakers experiment with genres and narrative forms, opening up new perspectives on their country.
Montenegro is also represented in the Feature Film Competition with BLACK TRUMPET: After ten years in Zagreb, writer Maksim Grahovac returns to his home village, where he is celebrated as the community’s great native son – shortly after running over a man at the village entrance. Amid cover-ups, local politics and copious amounts of rakija, a dark comedy unfolds about guilt and a troubled conscience.
The complete programme of the 36th FilmFestival Cottbus will be published on 15 October 2026.
36th FilmFestival Cottbus
3–8 November 2026
filmfestivalcottbus.de
For further information, interview requests, film stills and screening opportunities, please contact Marthe Gärtner (m.gaertner@filmfestival-
The FilmFestival Cottbus receives substantial funding from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and the City of Cottbus. We are also very grateful for the support of Creative Europe MEDIA, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Sparkasse Spree-Neiße and the Federal Agency for Civic Education. Our media partners are radioeins and radio3.
Close-Up: Latvia is funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb). View from the Black Mountain: Montenegro Special is supported by the Film Centre of Montenegro.
