Laila Pakalniņa
Termini
Gala punkti
LV
2024, 71’, no dialogue
Age 7+

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 screens more than through the windows – but they always reach their destination. Alongside them are kiosk vendors, vegetable and flower sellers, janitors, and drivers, whose daily routines complement the journeys of the travellers. Public transport stops become intimate crossroads, offering us an unexpected, moving visual symphony of Riga neighbourhoods.
Director Pakalniņa, along with her long-time collaborator, cinematographer Gints Bērziņš, returns to RIGA IFF for the fourth time – this time capturing symbolic glimpses of time in neighbourhoods like Zolitūde, Ziepniekkalns, Rumbula, Suži, Jugla, and Mežciems. The director says: “The ever-moving camera creates the form of the film, peering through the window of a bus, trolleybus, or tram, observing the world.” Shot in black-and-white and featuring everyday scenes, the film continues Pakalniņa’s signature “camera gaze” style. Alongside The Bus (2004) and Homes (2021), it forms an ornamental trilogy where public transport momentarily becomes shelter – a home among strangers – and draws a witty parallel to film theatre.