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 guy decides to be antisocial and flees to a country house together with his dog Tumsa (Darkness). The dog disappears, and as he is trying to find it he comes across his own fear of loneliness.
Tarikat is a visual poem of a journey towards enlightenment. Called by a mystic dream, Derya finds herself among souls steeped in the Islamic Sufi tradition. They join in hypnotic movements and stirring rhythms, dissolving into an ocean of silence.
In the family’s ancestral home, Esther, a strong and steadfast high-school teacher (now retired), and her husband Poul, a reasoned and rational doctor (also retired), are waiting for their guests. The first to arrive are Heidi (their controlling eldest daughter) with her browbeaten husband Michael and their sullen teenage son, Jonathan. Heidi is clearly a “daddy’s girl,” and she openly seeks her father’s consolation. We soon learn that, a few months before, the family had promised to help Esther, who is suffering from an advanced case of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), to commit suicide.
