‘A Totally Crazy, Passionate Journey’: How the Latvian Film Industry Rose From the Post-Soviet Rubble to Arrive on the World Stage

The family of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya has said an upcoming film inspired by her life is “grossly inaccurate” and misrepresents her work in a statement sent to journalists Tuesday afternoon.

“The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon teased former president Donald Trump for making “some pretty intense promises” during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday.During his speech, Trump said that he was his supporters “warrior,” “justice” and “retribution” for those who have been “wrong and betrayed.”“He’s either running for president or auditioning to be the next John Wick,” Fallon joked. “He was like, ‘I am your retribution,’ and then he kind of went off the rails after that.

.“These are big shoes for us to fill with our film. I don’t mean to compare our film to what some of our predecessors went through, but it is very moving to be even remotely connected to this history that “All Quiet” has,” Grunert told TheWrap. “We’ve managed to capture something that is obviously horrific, and we tried to come to what we can only imagine is an emotional truth of our main character, and how it could possibly feel to him,” Grunert said.

Ewan McGregor is sporting new facial hair these days.

Hollywood star Ewan McGregor turned heads as he filmed in Bolton town centre. The Star Wars icon, who shot to fame in 1996 as Mark Renton in the gritty comedy drama Trainspotting, is starring as Count Rostov in the Paramount and Showtime TV series A Gentleman in Moscow.

Paul Mescal has clocked his first Olivier Award nomination for his leading performance in Rebecca Frecknall’s buzzy stage adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire. Scroll down for the full list of nominees.

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures International Productions has optioned remake rights to Latvian Christmas comedy Accidental Santa in eight territories: North America, the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Mexico and Brazil.

WNBA basketball player Brittney Griner and wife Cherelle took the stage at the award show. The show’s host Queen Latifah prefaced Griner’s appearance by commenting on the resilience of Black people. 

Pete Doherty performed a section of The Pogues‘ ‘Dirty Old Town’ in Ukrainian on The Last Leg last night (February 24) – see a snippet below.The singer was appearing on the show, hosted by Adam Hills, on the one year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.To close the show, he performed ‘Dirty Old Town’ solo, incorporating the Ukrainian language into its final chorus.He ended the performance by exclaiming “Slava Ukraini!” which translates as “Glory to Ukraine!”Watch the performance below.A really lovely touch by @petedoherty performing Dirty Old Town in Ukranian. Also lovely to see he seems to have fought the demons that have haunted him for past 2 decades.

to film a documentary about the Russian invasion of the country, which began a year ago yesterday (February 24, 2022). In a statement released by the Office of the President of the Ukraine at the time, it read: “The director specifically came to Kyiv to record all the events that are currently happening in Ukraine and to tell the world the truth about Russia’s invasion of our country.”In a new interview, Penn recalled how he and Nicholson met the dictator at the 2001 Moscow Film Festival, where Penn’s film The Pledge was premiering.Revealing that the pair travelled with Putin to Russian filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov’s estate, Penn told The Independent: “We were put in a convoy.

One of the key aspects of the University of Idaho murder investigation is the veil of silence over it. The Moscow Police Department chose to keep everything about the case secret — right up until they made an arrest six weeks in. And since then, apart from the probable cause affidavit, there’s been more silence. There’s even a gag order on all law enforcement right now.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic “Luther: The Fallen Sun” starts by punishing its protagonist — scruffy, cross-the-line Detective Chief Inspector John Luther (Idris Elba) — for all his past sins after the franchise’s latest villain, played by Andy Serkis, releases details of Luther’s rule-bending tactics to the media. On the phone with some kind of Estonian henchman, Serkis’ Robey implies that it will be tricky to dig up the dirt on Luther because “he doesn’t have much of an online presence,” but the next thing we know, Luther’s being tossed into a high-security prison. Guess they got their hands on the past five seasons of the BBC Television series. Or maybe the last episode was enough — although we won’t retroactively give it away here, for those who haven’t dedicated the past dozen years to following Luther’s exploits. Suffice to say, this was the role that got people speculating that Elba might make a suitable replacement when Daniel Craig decided to retire his license to kill. Like Craig’s 21st-century 007, Luther was a darker, more tortured kind of action hero, torn between a constipated psychology and his locomotive drive to capture and punish wrongdoers.

Zack Sharf Back in 2001, Sean Penn found himself next to Jack Nicholson in a speeding car on the way to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin. The two actors were in Russia for the world premiere of “The Pledge” at the Moscow Film Festival. The Penn-directed psychological drama starred Nicholson as a retiring police detective who vows to catch the killer of a young child. Penn recently spoke to The Independent about his anxiety-inducing journey to meet Putin. “We were put in a convoy,” Penn said. “We knew that Putin was going to be the honored guest. In the nature of that time and space, we accepted the invitation. We got in this convoy, and we were going as fast as they wanted to drive, with no care for whether it might have presented danger in the villages we drove through.”

Brittney Griner is heading back to the basketball court.

Brittney Griner, the WNBA star who was imprisoned in Russia before being swapped for an arms dealer in a controversial prisoner exchange, has signed a new deal to play basketball.

Christopher Vourlias Latvian director Viesturs Kairiss, who won the international narrative competition at the Tribeca Film Festival last year with his coming-of-age drama “January,” is prepping his next feature film. “Ulya” is based on the real-life story of Ulyana Semjonova, a girl raised in the Latvian countryside who reaches a height of seven feet and would go on to become a famous professional basketball player. Set in the 1970s in Latvia, which was then part of the Soviet Union, the film follows its titular heroine from the time she leaves the countryside at the age of 14 and travels to Riga to play basketball. Kairiss described that as a “crucial stage” in Semjonova’s life, as her body was undergoing dramatic — and traumatic — changes for a teenage girl, while she also began to learn how to overcome adversity and, through basketball, find her place in life.

Christopher Vourlias When a rock festival held in Tallinn in the summer of 1988 was shut down by Soviet authorities, thousands of Estonians took to the streets, waving Estonian flags and singing patriotic songs in a bold show of defiance of Soviet rule. By the festival’s final night, some 200,000 people had joined what would later be dubbed the Singing Revolution, a catalyst for the non-violent movement that swept across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the early-‘90s and paved the way for independence. Even under Moscow’s thumb the Baltics demanded to be heard. For decades the three small nations have drawn on their historical, cultural and economic ties to create a sum that’s bigger than its parts, a collaborative spirit that’s also energized the countries’ growing screen industries, which will share the stage as joint Countries in Focus at this year’s European Film Market.

Christopher Vourlias This year, Latvia is sharing a spotlight with neighboring Lithuania and Estonia at the European Film Market, which has dedicated its 2023 Country in Focus Spotlight to the Baltic nations. It’s a sign of the tremendous strides the country has taken to put itself on the world cinema map, with the screen industries both producing more films and TV series than ever before and luring increasingly ambitious international projects to Northeastern Europe. Here’s a rundown of some of the top Latvian projects in the pipeline that their producers will be pitching in Berlin: Blue BloodDirector: Juris KursietisProducers: White Picture, Stellar Film, Asterisk*The follow-up to Kursietis’ Cannes Directors’ Fortnight player “Oleg” is the story of a successful couple whose comfortable life is turned upside-down when the husband is implicated in a massive corruption scandal.Sales: N/A

The first trailer for Apple’s “Tetris” film has been released. The film depicts the incredible true tale of the battle for the rights to Alexey Pajitnov’s iconic game between Western publishers, Nintendo and the Soviet Union.

Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights from Participant to “A Compassionate Spy,” the new documentary from Steve James (“Hoop Dreams,” “Life Itself”). The film, which world premiered at the Venice Film Festival ahead of its North American launch at Telluride, is a real-life spy story about Manhattan Project physicist Ted Hall, who provided nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, told through the perspective of his wife Joan, who protected his secret for decades. Magnolia will release the film in theaters later this year. “A Compassionate Spy” is presented by Participant and is a Mitten Media and Kartemquin Films production produced by Mark Mitten p.g.a., Dave Lindorff, and Steve James. Executive producers are Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Tim Horsburgh and Gordon Quinn.