13/10/2022 - My Love Affair With Marriage opens the Latvian gathering, which promises a host of festival hits and new discoveries for audiences and industry alike

The ninth edition of the Riga International Film Festival (13-23 October) begins today, with the event situated in the capital of Latvia showing a programme of more than 100 local, European and international films divided into 12 sections and six competitions. While screenings will chiefly be on site, there will also be opportunities for Latvian audiences to experience some of the programme online.

The festival will open with Signe Baumane’s My Love Affair With Marriage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Signe Baumane
film profile], already lauded on the circuit with screenings earlier in the year at the likes of Tribeca and Annecy. Riga IFF will welcome Baumane – who is US-based but Latvian-born – to attend the opening screening.

The festival’s Feature Film Competition – which focuses on films from the Baltic Sea and Nordic regions – will include a mixture of established talents and new names. Godland [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile], Hlynur Pálmason’s follow-up to A White, White Day [+see also:
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interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile], will screen after garnering huge praise in the likes of Un Certain Regard, as will Mikko Myllylahti’s dark Finnish comedy The Woodcutter Story [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mykko Myllylahti
film profile], which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week. Swedish filmmaker Måns Nyman will enjoy the international premiere of his film Locals in the competition, while the Polish film Day and Night [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Katarzyna Machalek and Lukasz Machowski will be having its world premiere. Local audiences will also get the chance to see Matīss Kaža’s Neon Spring [+see also:
film review
film profile], which will have a national premiere, fresh off its Edinburgh debut.

Home Made is the festival’s section for local fare, showcasing a diverse range of films. These run the gamut from a newly restored version of Eve’s Garden of Paradise, a classic Latvian flick from 1990 directed by Arvīds Krievs, to the world premiere of Shoal by Toms Harjo, which deconstructs three contemporary relationships.

Festival Selection does what it says on the tin, screening recent festival hits from directors such as Lukas Dhont, Michelangelo Frammartino and Mia Hansen-Løve, as does Nordic Highlights, which includes new films from Kristoffer Borgli and Hallvar Witzø.

Zeitgeist Deutschland includes both a meditation on the work of iconic filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder by Francois Ozon, Peter von Kant [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and outstanding works of contemporary German cinema, while the In Kino Veritas section of the festival will be made up of a retrospective dedicated to the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini. "The sweet chaos of daily good and evil," words once uttered by Pasolini, will also serve as the festival’s tagline.

The Kids Reel section will include numerous films for young audiences, including the Estonian movie The Sleeping Beast [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Jaak Kilmi, and the Architect's Cut double screening – which includes the short The Potemkinists by former Golden Bear winner Radu Jude – focuses on the urban environment as a character, rather than a backdrop.

The Focus on Ukraine strand, dedicated to contemporary Ukrainian cinema, will also include two public talks: “How to Decolonise the Media: Critical Cultural Journalism in Eastern Europe” and “Westernisation and Eastern European Cinema”.

The Riga International Film Festival will be rounded off by the National and International Short Film Competitions, with films eligible to be candidates for the European Film Academy Short Film Award, as well as the Baltic Music Video Competition.