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Madness
Movie + 1 extra
Directed by Kaljo Kiisk • 1969 • USSR/Estonia
Hailed as Estonia’s first truly modern feature film, Kaljo Kiisk’s mind-bending satire of authoritarianism and self-delusion pushed the boundaries of Soviet propriety and was banned from theatres for nearly twenty years. In an unnamed, occupied count...
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The Beauty
Movie + 1 extra
Directed by Arūnas Žebriūnas • 1969 • USSR/Lithuania
A poignant portrait of innocence and experience, Arūnas Žebriūnas’ exquisite drama captures the inner world of childhood with unusual clarity. Six-year-old Inga (Inga Mickytė) lives with her devoted but melancholy single mother (Lilija Žadeiky...
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Four White Shirts
Movie + 1 extra
Directed by Rolands Kalniņš • 1967 • USSR/Latvia
The countercultural spirit of the sixties runs through this cult musical drama from Latvia, which thumbed its nose at the prevailing Soviet orthodoxy of the era and was rarely screened as a result. By day, Cēzars Kalniņš is a telephone repairman; ...
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235 000 000
Movie + 3 extras
Directed by Uldis Brauns • 1967 • USSR/Latvia
A landmark in the Baltic poetic documentary tradition, 235 000 000 is one of the most ambitious films of the Soviet 60s. Produced in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution – the title refers to the nominal population of the...
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Goodbye Soviet Union
Movie + 1 extra
Directed by Lauri Randla • 2020 • Estonia
Described by director Lauri Randla as “the Soviet Amélie”, this popular coming-of-age story captures the absurdity and the poignancy of late Soviet life. Set in Leningrad 3, a small Estonian town complete with a secret nuclear facility, the film follows ...
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Feelings
Movie + 2 extras
Directed by Algirdas Dausa and Almantas Grikevičius • 1968 • USSR/Lithuania
Banned by the Soviet authorities outside of Lithuania, this controversial classic blends the personal and the political against stunning coastal landscapes. 1944, on the Curonian Spit: one side of this Baltic lagoon is o...
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Remember to Blink
Movie + 1 extra
Directed by Austėja Urbaitė • 2022 • Lithuania
The debut feature from Lithuania’s Austėja Urbaitė, the compelling Remember to Blink charts the thin line between devotion and aggression. In the secluded French countryside, Jacqueline and Léon (Anne Azoulay and Arthur Igual) are set to welcome the...
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Motorcycle Summer
Movie + 1 extra
Directed by Uldis Brauns • 1975 • USSR/Latvia
When Māris receives a motorbike for his eighteenth birthday, he hits the road with his friends. When he meets unhappy bride-to-be Inese and her thoughtless fiancé, a whirlwind romance blooms that soon sees the pair riding the roads of Soviet Latvia. ...
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Dawn
Movie + 2 extras
Directed by Laila Pakalniņa • 2015 • Latvia
At once an homage to and a subversive reimagining of Soviet cinematic heritage, Laila Pakalniņa’s Dawn is one of post-independence Latvia’s most crucial films. Pakalniņa draws on the Stalinist propaganda myth of Pavlik Morozov: an ardent Pioneer who wa...
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Spring
Movie + 1 extra
Directed by Arvo Kruusement • 1969 • USSR/Estonia
Widely considered their nation’s greatest ever film by Estonian audiences, Spring is a touching and invigorating period drama. Based on the popular novel of the same name by Oskar Luts, it tells the story of a group of rural schoolchildren at th...
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Bridges of Time
Movie + 3 extras
Directed by Kristīne Briede and Audrius Stonys • 2018 • Latvia/Lithuania
Acclaimed documentarians Kristīne Briede and Audrius Stonys honour their cinematic heritage in this meditative essay film about the “poetic documentary” school that came to define Baltic filmmaking. Emerging in the Soviet 1...
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The Woman and the Glacier
Movie + 3 extras
Directed by Audrius Stonys • 2016 • Lithuania
Lithuanian glaciologist Ausra Revutaite has lived alone in the Tian Shen mountains of Kazakhstan for 30 years, with only a cat and a dog for company in her battered Soviet-era cabin. Her life is utterly dedicated to the study of the Tuyuksu Glacier. ...
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Blue Horizon
Movie + 1 extra
Directed by Vytautas Mikalauskas • 1957 • USSR/Lithuania
The first feature film produced solely by Lithuanian artists, Blue Horizon is a charming, affecting seaside tale. Conceived as a children’s film but with more than enough wit and intelligence to engage audiences of all ages, Vytautas Mikal...
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Is It Easy to be Young?
Movie + 1 extra
Directed by Juris Podnieks • 1986 • USSR/Latvia
Hailed as “the first bird of perestroika” by Mikhail Gorbachev, Juris Podnieks’ cult classic documentary is a vital document of a society on the brink of change. Podnieks shoots with compassion and anger, giving voice to a generation coming of age ...
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Year of the Dragon
Movie + 2 extras
Directed by Andres Sööt • 1988 • USSR/Estonia
1988 proved a decisive year in Estonia’s journey towards independence from the Soviet Union. Over the course of just a few months, national symbols including the Estonian flag began to proliferate in public, rifts grew between local politicians and t...