SHORT RIGA

This includes the International competition and the Baltic student short film programmes, the Baltic music video competition programme and... lots of parties! Because it makes no sense to watch a whole lot of incredible cinema and leave without having a chat about it afterwards. Look for the "S" sign (or is it a snake?) for adventure – cinematic, social and just fun!

A story of the Siberian province. Girls passed directly on from orphanage to neuropsychiatric institutions are deprived of their rights as citizens: no freedom, no work, and no family. The path to reconquer these rights, in the face of fearsome Russian institutional bureaucracy, is long and difficult. At times, someone succeeds, but the new freedom is then a leap into the unknown…

A lonesome streetsweeper’s letter written on the first day of a new year. A year spent watching the seasons change and dreaming of a New Year’s miracle.