The best Gundars Āboliņš’s movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Gundars Āboliņš’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Gundars Āboliņš.
Midsummer Madness
5.9/10
St. John’s Night is a traditional midsummer Latvian celebration where family and friends get together to build bonfires, drink and have a good time. According to a legend, on this night lovers and those who wish to fall in love can search the woods for the "magic fern".
Theatre
7.6/10
Human attempts to understand why when acting they are all going through the heart, but in real life are playing a role.
Homo Novus
7.3/10
Riga in the 30s. Wild bohemian lifestyle is the name of the game for every artist worth his salt. A young man from the countryside, poor but ambitious, arrives in the capital, where he hopes to make his mark in the artistic circles. What follows is a string of events, fraught with confusion and misunderstanding, hilarious and heart-warming at the same time.
The Water (Elements)
6.2/10
Maria decides to go for a swim in the pool even though it looks deserted and she’s warned that the water is cold. When she gets into the pool she is faced with not only the frigid water, but with her other feelings as well. Like fear.
The Cat's Mill
7.4/10
A white cat owns a mill, but loses the mill to a black cat and the devil. Latvian animation.
Waterbomb for the Fat Tomcat
6.5/10
The two sisters' parents have gone abroad to earn the living, so the girls Marta and Linda needs someone to take care of them. For that they have their dictatorial spinster aunt Una, who desperately wants to get married, and has a sympathy for the jeweler Ivo. Meanwhile, Marta is working hard to get a promised puppy, but her plans are ruined, as her aunt feels a strong despise for dogs. So, the relations between the girls and their aunt becomes really tense. Until the perfect plan of the sisters - to help the aunt to get married, to get rid of her.
Dzīvīte
7.4/10
A Limousine the Colour of Midsummer's Eve
8.6/10
When old auntie Mirta succeeds in a lottery and wins a car, which she cannot use herself, different family members are suddenly there to 'be helpful' in favor to get the car after aunties' death, not to mention, they never have come before to help her. The funny rivalry between two parts of family, a foolish jealousy to the near living peasants' family, which had always non-selfishly been there for auntie, is a caricature of greasy human nature. This is a slight humor of the Soviet life details as well. But aunt Mirta isn't fool, and is still young in her heart until her last minute, that appears in her last will - to whom the car, the limousine in the color of St. John's night goes.
Monsieur Taurins
7.2/10
An unemployed Latvian gets a job as an agent finding a house in France.
The Sign Painter
7/10
A Latvian tragicomedy about a young artist who bears witness to the dramatic political upheavals of the WWII era. As brutal regimes come and go, his country, his village, his people, and even his heart are swept up in the inexorable currents of history.
Purva bridējs - Uldis Pūcītis
A TV documentary about Latvian actor Uldis Pūcītis, featuring fragments from many of his films ("Swap Treader", "Four White Shirts" and others), as well as stories by people who knew him - actors and directors, former lovers and classmates.
Bille
7.4/10
A family film based on the book Bille by Vizma Belševica. An extraordinary, lonely yet spiritually strong little girl attempts to comprehend the adult world, which in her eyes is very contradictory, and to prove her own value despite the ignorance and lack of appreciation by her family in late 1930s. Bille tries to find an escape in her vivid imagination.
What Silent Gerda Knows
5.5/10
Closing day of the season in the boarding house at the Vietinghoff Palace in the province of Latvia. Here the material world and atmosphere of the 1930s are reconstructed as fully as possible. According to the rules of the institution, guests must abandon all their means of digital communications. And this is what they are looking for: to disappear, at least for a while, and become inaccessible to the outside world. The lingering summer heat drags the guests into an insane frenzy where surrealistic and grotesque situations build up an ambiguous comedy.
The Mystery of the Old Parish House
6.1/10
In this movie (based on a true story) within a movie, a director tries to film the tale of an old KGB activist living in a parish house. In the summer of 1941 the activist tortured and killed Latvians in the cellar of the house. Although the old man hires others to brick over the cellar door, the murdered people keep coming through the stones and never leave him in peace. Unbeknownst to the film makers, the "real" KGB activist, now an aged drunk, is milling about the film set. Moreover, the director and lead actor are competing for the love of the lead actress, and the film's producer wants the director to re-shoot parts of the movie.
Simplify Your Soul
5.4/10
A city, a man, a woman. This time it's glittering Zurich. The protagonists: Karl and Lisa. They fall in love. The usual. But Karl is a so-called 'loser'. Does drugs, borrows money and is in debt everywhere. Responsibility is alien to him. He lives day to day, detests relationships and he's heading straight for the abyss. Finally, when he loses Lisa, too, he has a major breakdown and finally begins to fight for both her and himself. Lisa is disappointed by Karl's way of life, even though she isn't a shining example of responsibility herself. Both are running from reality. And what was that about 'devotion', 'freedom' and 'trust'? This is a film about love. Not the conquering-all kind but real love. With all its weaknesses, its volatility, and its egoism.
Window
Mr. Schmidt, a young man who is recovering from a recent nervous breakdown, arrives at a country manor. As he waits for the governess Mrs. Rosenbaum, Schmidt is scared by the gardener but then meets a bored, young woman, Vera, who kindly accompanies him through the house. Vera tells Schmidt about a great tragedy. Precisely three years ago, members of her aunt’s family passed away, but the bodies were never found. Mrs. Rosenbaum does not believe in the death of her relatives and continues to wait for their return. Coming close to madness, Mr. Schmidt escapes from the mansion, and the missing family members return from an actual hunting expedition. As it turns out, Miss Vera makes up legends because of boredom.
Am Cu Ce - Pride
Romanian truck driver Stancu is worried about his nephew Dragan, who often takes risks to keep the schedule of the logistics company.
