Laila Pakalnina

Termini (2024)

The intimacy of passing by. Heading home, to work, to see a friend, to buy dinner, or perhaps to the cinema. As the seasons change, we encounter fellow passengers along the way. They commute, sit, wait, get bored, maybe sometimes stare at their small scree ...

Homes (2021)

The camera stands in a house, the lens pointing through the window, outdoors, where the occupants of the home are standing. They respond patiently to the camera operator's directions: a small step to the left, a little bit forward, no, back just a bit, yes ...

In the Mirror (2020)

A CrossFit trainer becomes the father of a baby girl, Snow White. Snow White's mother dies, and her father marries a young woman obsessed with CrossFit and herself. She works out all the time in order to be the best. And she re ...

The First Bridge (2020)

The First Bridge is a film about frontiers, barriers, the ways to cross over and see what goes on, on the other side. But it also a film about time, as it was shot on Kodak Negative Films acquired in the year 1997 and discovered intact in 2018. ...

Spoon (2019)

A film about a plastic spoon and a society that has reached a high level of development – oil is being retrieved from subterranean depths, transported to processing plants, turned into plastic, transported to another plant, where it acquires the shape of ...

Hello, Horse! (2017)

A film about everything changing while remaining the same. Or rather – everything remaining the same while changing. We observed this (and wanted to share) while standing (standing regularly and for a long time) on a road rather close to the Eastern bord ...

Waterfall (2016)

Waterfall and I, and – no, the other way around! This film is, of course, about nature – human nature. Or – what a human can do with the widest waterfall in Europe. ...

Hey, Rasma! (2015)

Just like ordinary people, whole nations often wonder why their neighbors are living better than they are. For example, where did the Estonians living on Mohni Island suddenly get bicycles and sewing machines? Could the answer have some connection with the ...

Face (2014)

His own image in the mirror was so important that one day he didn't find himself there. ...

Hotel and a Ball (2014)

This film is about wondering why the world is the place that it is. Wondering, why beauty often lies in simplicity, or why taking something too seriously might result in the ridiculous, as playing can be at once the most important and serious thing to do. ...

Short Film About Life (2014)

A story about life in two minutes. ...

The Chimney (2013)

Once upon a time there was a chimney. By the chimney - there were three houses. In the houses there were seven girls. All of them - blondes. ...

Forty Two (2013)

As soon as I finished my first marathon, I wanted to become a tripod in order to make a film about it. That is because words are certainly not the right instruments to tell us what it's like to run a marathon. I think we can try to show it through the char ...

Pizzas (2012)

Playfully avant-garde and exhibiting an intriguing sense of humor, PIZZAS offers a puzzle of widescreen imagery, brash pop moments, and road movie ambience. Pakalnina, Latvia's best-known director, spun this cryptic but airy comedy/tragedy from a news item ...

Snow Crazy (2012)

There is a popular Latvian folksong which begins with the phrase "I was singing out high on a mountain". The irony of it is that according to physical geography there are no mountains in Latvia. So what exactly is the place where the Latvians are "singing ...

33 Animals of Santa Claus (2011)

Santa Claus lives on the fourth floor of an apartment block. Santa owns seven dogs, six cats, two rabbits, one crow, one pigeon, one chinchilla, one guinea pig, ten degus and some fish. ...

On Rubik's Road (2010)

Rubiks' Road is a bicycle path built in the 1980s and named after Alfreds Rubiks, leader of the Latvian Communist party at the time. One of the most ferocious opposers to Latvia's independence in the early 1990s and later elected to the European Parliament ...

Silence (Elements) (2009)

There should be silence in a museum. And someone should see to it that the silence is there. It's the logical order of things. However, it might seem weird to somebody. ...

Three Men and a Fish Pond (2008)

Three elderly country bachelors idle away their time amidst semi-wild nature, closer to birds and pond fish than to humans. ...

Fire (Elements) (2007)

Even before Marija was born it was clear that she would be a person getting in trouble all the time. However, that's not all. The most important thing is that she is often alongside firemen. Is it because things around her catch fire? ...

Theodore (2006)

Every day, come rain or shine, Theodore used to bike the seven kilometres from his house to the centre of the village to sit and drink beer in the bus stop. For him, no doubt, this place was the centre of the Universe. With his death, the centre has moved ...

The Water (Elements) (2006)

Maria decides to go for a swim in the pool even though it looks deserted and she's warned that the water is cold. When she gets into the pool she is faced with not only the frigid water, but with her other feelings as well. Like fear. ...

Dream Land (2004)

There are places that we don't want to know anything about, places that we would rather pretend don't exist at all. One such place is a dumpsite. From the humans' point of view, it is a ghastly place, a stinking desert of trash. But it's a desert that is t ...

Bus (2004)

This documentary follows a bustrip from Tallinn to Kaliningrad. A route that was so common in the Soviet times now passes through 4 different countries and crosses 3 different borders. ...

Visions of Europe (2004)

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors. ...

It'll Be Fine (2004)

Various people on the street stand stock still in front of the movie camera as though their photograph were about to be taken. This lasts just a few instants, then they nod as they look into the camera and move on. A family, a group of friends, men. In the ...

Martin (2002)

A film about the daily life of Martin, a handicapped child who will always be dependent on his parents. Ever since he was very small, Martin has had to get around in a wheelchair and has needed the constant help of an adult. Martin's parents, Inga and Andr ...

Wake Up! (2001)

The world seen through the eyes of children. The action takes place in Karosta, the former military port of Liepaja city – however, it is not that important, as the film could take place anywhere. We observe children playing on the beach, revealing the c ...

Papa Gena (2001)

It is what it is. One needs a reason to get a passer-by to stop in their tracks and stand in front of the camera for a while. In this case the reason was - Mozart. ...

The Shoe (1998)

The late 1950s. Every night, Soviet tractors comb the coast of Latvia looking for signs of anyone who could have infiltrated the Soviet border from the sea. One morning, three Soviet patrolmen discover a woman's shoe in the sand and footsteps leading to th ...

The Oak (1997)

The oak tree in Seja is roughly 700 years old. Around this monumental tree, the peaceful and repetitive life goes on in the village, a group of houses in the middle of the forest. It is an almost unworldly existence in a condition of absolute simplicity wh ...

Ubāns (1995)

An insight into who Kondrāts Ubāns was – painter, teacher, father, friend. ...

The Mail (1995)

The morning begins when the mail is delivered - this has been a tradition for almost an eternity. This film looks at daily things, daily movements, daily life and the daily routines of the postman, which are nevertheless meaningful to those who await and r ...

The Ferry (1994)

The ferry crosses the river, transporting people from one shore to the other, from one country to another. It runs year round, never stopping. The footage was filmed on the Latvian-Belarussian border in the early 1990s - a time when the Soviet Union began ...

Church (1993)

Annas Ziemassvētki (1992)

Little Anna is waiting for her first Christmas. ...

The Linen (1991)

A subdued observation of daily life in a children's hospital. The driver of a delivery van regularly delivers clean linen to the wards where small, tense dramas of life and death are played out. ...

The Cathedral (1991)

The Latvian director's graduation film from Moscow Film School does not deliver images loyal to the regime but is a testimony to her journalistic background. When the independence struggle is to be suppressed by military power, the people in Riga erect bar ...

Iešana (1991)

Christian youth pilgrimage to Częstochowa, Poland, to meet with the Pope of Rome. ...

Termini (2024)

The intimacy of passing by. Heading home, to work, to see a friend, to buy dinner, or perhaps to the cinema. As the seasons change, we encounter fellow passengers along the way. They commute, sit, wait, get bored, maybe sometimes stare at their small scree ...