Historical note

 

In 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany have signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and a secret additional protocol.The protocol provided annexation of Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Eastern Poland, and Bessarabia to the USSR’s sphere of influence. In 1940, the governments of Latvia and neighboring Baltic States received an ultimatum: to form a pro-Soviet government and allow placement of military units of the Red Army on the territory of Latvia. Latvian people, were in essence taken captive by the Soviets. There were residents of Latvia who did not wish to accept the occupation of their country and a  hostile impose of the Soviet regime. In retaliation the Latvians formed a guerrilla force 'Forest Brothers' and led a civil war. At the same time Europe was terrified by inflaming horrors of war and Hitler's fascism as the powers of the Wehrmacht had begun the occupation. After Hitler’s troops  attacked the Soviet Union and consequently occupied Latvia, Latvian people were forced to fight on opposite sides, to ignore a call to military duty entailed execution. The story of the Venne family is but a single story of many similar accounts, about those who survived through epochal events that form a disastrous experience for all the mankind. 

 

The movie is based on the testimonies of those eyewitnesses who lived through. All the names of characters, as well as biographies of some characters, are fictional.  

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Synopsis

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1996. London. Adrianne Venne, a young ambitious skinhead, is suspected of murdering an Afro-American journalist. The prospect of a temporary escape opens up for Adrians through his grandfather, Carl Venne: a lonely and self-contained old man hiding his dramatic past is ready to give his grandson a chance for redemption by returning the family their once-nationalized manner in motherland Latvia. For Adrians Venne it is a chance to use his ideology with honour.

1996 year. Latvia. Adrians meets a longtime friend of the Vennes, notary Ika Steinberg. The meeting changes all the plans of the skinhead as does it change his attitude towards the procedure. The bureaucratic process proves out to be not at all dry and formal, but acquires a completely different meaning. Retrospective of the story told by Ika Steinberg covers the period from 1936 to 1954 of the 20th century.

1936 year. Engaged in fishery, the Vennes live in a Latvian manor on the banks of the Baltic, in the Kurzeme region: father Martins Venne, mother Indra Venne, elder son Carl Venne (Adrians’s grandfather), and younger son Gunnar Venne. The Vennes share their manor with their cotters: Ivar and Ilze Upmale and their daughter Liksma.

The brothers Venne are nothing alike. Karl is a romantic tied to the manor and devoted to the fishery and the cotter’s daughter Liksma, he is silent and reserved. Gunnar is a choleric spending his time reading books. In pursue of his dream to become a sailor, Gunnar leaves for Riga, but the dream turns out to be beyond his reach, he enrolls into the underground communist community, and soon gets arrested. Karl is seriously affected by the arrest of his brother, but tragically their principles are quite the opposite.

The events of the 1940s change everything. The peaceful, happy, picturesque life of the Vennes is falling apart. At this time in the life of the family appear a figure of Vladimir Matveev, a representative of the Soviet party cell and a fanatical agitator. Due to the pro-communist views Gunnar grows to be Vladimir’s friend. Carl endures internal rebellion not willing to cope with someone else’s power over his native land. Furthermore, Vladimir interferes with Carl’s feelings for Liksma, engaging in the struggle for her affections.

Ika Steinberg, a former merchant and a friend of the Venne family, play his own fateful part in this historical period, where the destinies of the cotters Umpales, the Soviet activist Vladimir Matveev and the Vennes closely intertwine into a chain of non-trivial events.

During the Second World War, the Venne brothers fight on the opposite sides of the front, Gunnar - in the ranks of the Red Army and Carl as a volunteer in the legion of the SS. Within this historic ‘meat grinder’ the person of Vladimir Matveev becomes for brothers Venne inauspicious. The events of the war shall reunite the brothers in their home one more time only to divide their lives for good. How exactly? That is what Adrians is to learn during this journey. Ika Steinberg fails to finish the story as emotional stress deprives him of his vitality, while the young arrogant skinhead, for the first time on the land of his ancestors, opens up a ‘living book’ of historical events and has to unravel on his own the intricate patterns of the tragic mysteries of the past that shall forever change his personality and the destiny of the whole family...

 

​Created by Kristina Kevish featuring Serge Manto & Fedor Selkin

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​Period consultants:

 

Janis Tomashevsky, Latvian War Museum, Head of the Historical Department for the World War II;

Udis Neyburgs, Latvian Museum of Occupation, Historician;

Taiga Koknevicha, Latvian Museum of Occupation, Curator of Master Archive;

Lelde Neimane, Latvian Museum of Occupation, Curator of Audiovisual Archive;

Evita Rooke, Latvian Museum of Occupation, Historician;

Historical Literature: Eduard Berklavs ‘TO KNOW AND TO REMEMBER’

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

© Kristina Kevish Manto 2017

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Contact us

so we can create great movie together

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kkevish@gmail.com | +371 20045658

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ksenija.krasnodembska@gmail.com | +371 259 898 09

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This project is independent and is financed

by private funds through donations and

crowd funding platforms