Latvia, the late 1920s. Anna, a young woman, pretty and educated, falls in love with an adventurous entrepreneur, 30 years her senior. But with marriage comes great jealousy, and the entrepreneur hides Anna away in the forest, far from other men, where she bears him eight children. The Great Depression hits them hard. Then Latvia is overrun with invasions by the Soviets, then the Nazis, then the Soviets once again. Anna is a pillar of strength, defying the hardships, raising her young, teaching them survival secrets of the forest. But something inside her is terribly wrong. Years later, Signe, a young artist, asks her father, "how did my grandmother die?" Her father is evasive. His seven siblings are evasive, as well. Signe strongly suspects that Anna committed suicide. Clues of mental illness had always leaked through the family stories. Signe suffers from depression herself. Her suicidal fantasies get her locked away for four months in a Soviet mental institute. Three of her cousins...
Official submission of Latvia to the best foreign language film category of the 87th Academy Awards 2015. See more »
Quotes
Signe Baumane:
I was reading the complete works of Victor Hugo for the second time when my mother opened the door: Don't be rude! Come and greet your visiting relatives. But mom, I am at the most interesting place! Put the book down, the relatives won't be here forever, the book will wait. With a sigh I put the book down and grumpily went to see the relatives. For some reason I saw talking to people as a waste of time, they never seemed to offer the wrapture that a good book did. Nor did they possess an ...
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This movie is a brilliant representation of both the political situation in a certain part of the world at that time AND mental illnesses inside out. It intertwines the two into a story that captures what the reality of a lot of ordinary people used to be back then, stuff we never actually get to see in movies. Even a slight hereditary mental illness could grow and devour a person completely in such a toxic environement. I'd recommend the movie to anybody who wants to see a fresh aproach on the topic in a beautifully executed form.
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This movie is a brilliant representation of both the political situation in a certain part of the world at that time AND mental illnesses inside out. It intertwines the two into a story that captures what the reality of a lot of ordinary people used to be back then, stuff we never actually get to see in movies. Even a slight hereditary mental illness could grow and devour a person completely in such a toxic environement. I'd recommend the movie to anybody who wants to see a fresh aproach on the topic in a beautifully executed form.