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!
In the aftermath of the 1968 student riots that led to widespread strikes and threatened to topple the government, a young woman retreats to a country farmhouse. Her respite is a result of some unnamed incident which profoundly disturbs the girl but is never entirely revealed. She spends most of her time writing letters in the nude and dreaming of being reunited with her revolutionary boyfriend.
Pranas used to suffer from a mid-life crisis, but now he is ready to come back to his family. It’s no easily done, so he decides to in stage his death to show his family how much they would lose. At the same time the world is living through a very intense diplomatic crisis which causes the a new world war. Still, there is no big difference between a family war or one in the world.
In rural Afghanistan, people believe in the stories they invent to tell each other to explain the mysteries of the world they don’t understand. Even though there are no grownups around, the kids know the rules very well; the main one is that boys and girls are not allowed together. The boys practice with their slings to fight the wolves should they attack the flock. The girls smoke dried branches of wheat and secretly play wedding, dreaming of getting a husband soon.
Eini grows up isolated from society in the woods together with her controlling, violent and abusive father, a man afraid of the world and who keeps Eini very close. Stories about her granny and Eini’s invincible fantasy enable her to create a world within from which she can draw her strength to survive. ”If you’re looking for quiet entertainment on a rainy day, look no further than Granny’s Dancing on the Table.” Film-book.com
The film is based on The Childhood of a Leader – short story by Jean-Paul Sartre (1939) and John Fowles’s 1965 novel The Magus. A child’s angelic face conceals a budding sociopath in the audacious, senses-shattering feature debut from actor Brady Corbet. A powerhouse international cast led by Robert Pattinson and Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) headlines this dark domestic nightmare.
