Award Screening: Best International Narrative Feature

Awards Screenings

FEATURE | 95 MINUTES |

AWARD SCREENING: BEST INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE FEATURE

January

A young man’s dreams are put on hold in this unfortunately timely story of art, love, and war. It is January 1991, and Jazis (Kārlis Arnolds Avots) longs to become a filmmaker, citing the works of Ingmar Bergman and Jim Jarmusch among his inspirations. He finds a like-minded lover in Anna (Alise Danovska), who similarly dreams of artistic success and later accepts a position working for filmmaker Juris Podnieks (Juhan Ulfsak). However, their love and carefree lives crash to a halt when the Soviet menace becomes a grim reality, their homeland becoming a fierce battleground of subjugation versus independence. Veteran director and playwright Viesturs Kairiss marks his seventh narrative film with this thought-provoking meditation on the intersection of art, love and war. With its distinctive filmmaking style of Super 8 interludes and actual archival footage, January is an experience that will envelop you long after the credits roll.--Karen McMullen