Staron Film

A documentary detective film about the construction of a 870 kilometres long highspeed railway line that started with a dream to connect the Baltic States to rest of the Europe when in 1991 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania regained their independence from Soviet Union. Filmmaker Kārlis Lesiņš becomes a ‘citizen-investigator’ and goes on the road to find out why after 30 years and with only few years before the intended launch of the Rail Baltica railway line, the construction of this EU-funded project is significantly behind the schedule, over the budget and may never be finished at all. Kārlis follows the trail of Rail Baltica project, trying to get the answers - what has happened and what is happening? Traveling through all the involved countries, he meets officials, military personnel, investigative journalists, people whose land will be expropriated, employees implementing the project and potentially benefiting entrepreneurs, who open up to him with their versions of the story.

What limits does Malena cross to get what she wants most? Malena is a 38 year old middle class doctor from Buenos Aires. One afternoon she receives the call from Doctor Costas, who informs her that she must travel immediately to the north of the country: the baby she was waiting for is about to be born. Unexpectedly Malena decides to embark on an uncertain journey, full of crossroads, facing all kinds of legal and moral obstacles that will make her constantly wondering how far she is ready to go.

7 year old Matías returns home from a friend’s birthday party to find his mother, Laura, unconscious on the floor. When she recovers her senses they decide to leave home and rush to a shelter for abused women where they spend 48 hours before Laura decides to rebuild her life somewhere else. Through the eyes of Matías we will discover their escape in a city where everything Matías once knew feels dangerous and foreign until Laura finds a secure place to raise her son.

At a newsstand, two women file divorce papers so that one of them can start a new chapter in her life, free of fear and violence.

When Danish filmmaker Lea Glob first portrayed Apolonia Sokol in 2009, she appeared to be leading a storybook life. The talented Apolonia was born in an underground theater in Paris and grew up in an artists’ community—the ultimate bohemian existence. In her 20s, she studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, one of the most prestigious art academies in Europe. Over the years, Lea Glob kept returning to film the charismatic Apolonia and a special bond developed between the two young women.

Feeling neglected by her mother and sister on their holiday in Spain, 13-year-old Claire tries to help a young Senegalese beach vendor to escape his misery.

A young man is working as a housekeeper in an empty mansion. When its owner returns to start his mayoral election campaign, the young man bonds with him and defends him when his campaign is vandalized, setting off a chain of violence.

It is 1991 in Latvia and nineteen-year-old aspiring cinematographer Jazis’s whole world is thrown into chaos as he is dragged into the people’s peaceful protests against the Soviet Army’s attempted takeover of power in his country.

Based on a Soviet propaganda story about Young Pioneer (the Soviet equivalent of a Boy Scout) Morozov, who denounced his father to Stalin’s secret police and was in turn killed by his family. His life exemplified the duty of all good Soviet citizens to become informers, at any expense. In our film, 75 years later, we call him little Janis. He is a Pioneer who lives on the Soviet collective farm “Dawn”. His father is an enemy of the farm (and the Soviet system) and plots against it. Little Janis betrays his father; his father takes revenge upon his son. Who then in this old Soviet tale is good and who is bad? This film reveals that a distorted brain is always dangerous. Even today.

The older marriage sails out on a cruise on the lakes, where they have spent the entire one’s life. The enclosed space of the yacht provokes reflection on the future as well on what has passed. In the evenings old melodies resound.

A combination of circumstances has motivated me to come up with a film that would tell the whole life of a man in a single shot.