state Baltic: Last News

Dennis Harvey Film CriticHistory currently repeating itself lends a particular frisson to Latvian theater, opera and film director Viesturs Kairiss’ “January.” It takes place in early 1991, when the nation’s push for independence (alongside other Baltic states) met with armed Soviet resistance even as the U.S.S.R. was falling apart. Those historical events are interwoven with vaguely autobiographical fiction revolving around a mildly nonconformist Riga film school student, one admittedly drawn much as the director was himself in that time and place.With Moscow leadership again hawkish toward retaining and/or regaining territories of a former empire, this flashback has particular resonance, amplified by the use of archival news and activist-shot footage.

British Army soldiers, along with tanks and weapons, are to be sent to eastern Europe amid growing World War Three fears.In one of the largest military deployments since the Cold War, British personnel will be placed in countries from Finland to North Macedonia. These plans were in place before Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his "special military operation" in Ukraine, but have since been bolstered.

Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine sparked fears of war spreading across the rest of Europe. With Russia sending threats to other countries in recent weeks, those fears may not be completely unfounded.In September 2014, Putin listed five European countries in a private threat over Russia's growing military strength.The countries privately warned were Poland, Romania and the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - which are all part of the EU, the bloc that Ukraine was also looking to join at the time.According to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, Putin allegedly told then Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko: "If I wanted, in two days I could have Russian troops not only in Kyiv but also in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Warsaw and Bucharest."The statement, if made in these terms, represented the first time Putin had discussed the idea of invading an EU or NATO member state.European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, who is Latvian, told Politico earlier this month that Putin is likely to ramp up his military ambitions and challenge NATO in the Baltic Sea countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia if he is triumphant in Ukraine.He said: “If we do not support Ukraine, it’s not going to stop in Ukraine.

Lullaby” and “Utama,” shot on an awe-inspiring Bolivian Altiplano, swept the board at a historic, 25th Málaga Film Festival which said a lot about the current state of the Spanish film industry. Running March 18-26, the Festival proved a vibrant affair, galvanised by renewed interest in the Spanish cinema after a buoyant reception for its major movies at Berlin, as well as the joy of proving the first time many industry attendees had seen each other in person in two years and backing from Spain’s AVS Hub plan for a vastly larger industry presence. In Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Lullaby,” coming after Sundance hit “Piggy” and Carla Simón’s Berlin Golden Bear triumph “Alcarrás,” Spain would look to have a third art pic breakout in just the first three months of 2022, all driven by a young generation of women cineastes, directors and producers. Carlota Pereda’s “Piggy” uses quite brilliantly a plus-size girl’s complicity with a serial killer to force home to audiences the terrifying hatred inspiredly bullying.

Chechnya, Crimea and now Ukraine in a bid to restore the historical Russian empire. Russia, and its successor state the USSR, has had more than its fair share of unscrupulous and often brutal leaders.

Marta Balaga As Russia-Ukraine tensions rise, dominating international headlines, director Maria Ignatenko talks about the hell of war in her Rotterdam Film Festival title “Achrome.” But her oneiric film, lensed by Anton Gromov, is not exactly a comment on the current situation in Europe. “This particular topic is becoming more and more timely these days, but my film is poetry,” she says.“It’s more related to the world of art and I would like to keep it that way, so I am not ready to make that connection just yet.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentUniFrance, the French film promotion org headed by Serge Toubiana and Daniela Elstner, is launching the International French Cinema Fest on Bastille Day at the Cannes Film Festival. The event aims at shining a light on some of France’s latest productions whose release plans were disrupted due to the pandemic.Spanning over 30 countries, the International French Cinema Fest is being organized in partnership with distributors and exhibitors around the world who will host 50 premiere screenings of select French movies ahead of their theatrical release in key territories, including the U.S.

Christopher Vourlias For three small nations tucked away in a far corner of Northeastern Europe, wedged between the sprawling tundra of Scandinavia to the north and the lumbering bear of Russia in the east, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have long realized their strength in numbers: In 1989, amid mass protests calling for independence from the Soviet Union, half a million people joined hands in a human chain stretching from Tallinn to Vilnius.

Dry Water.”A slice of Galician and Portuguese Noir, “Dry Water” marks part of a pioneering push by Spain’s Portocabo, producer of Movistar Plus smash hit “Hierro,” to take classic free-to-air scripted in its native Galicia, north-west Spain, into a premium TV age.The MipTV launch comes as HBO has boarded “Dry Water” season two, now set up as a co-production between Spain’s Portocabo and Portugal’s SPi with the participation of Portuguese public broadcaster RTP, HBO Spain & Portugal and TVG Galicia, the state TV in Galicia.In a pre-MipTV deal made via DCD Rights, the first series of “Dry Water,” launched at 2019’s Mipcom, has just been acquired by IVI for its feed of 15 countries across Russia, CIS and the Baltic states. The first series of

EXCLUSIVE: Rocket Science has scored a raft of international pre-sales on Michael Gracey’s (The Greatest Showman) Better Man, based on the life of singer Robbie Williams.

Naman Ramachandran Netflix has acquired worldwide rights, with some exclusions, for “The Personal History of David Copperfield” star Dev Patel’s directorial debut “Monkey Man.” The streamer is thought to have paid around $30 million for the film.The rights agreement excludes Spain, Latin America, Iceland, Former Yugoslavia, Poland, Russia and Baltic States, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pan-Asian PTV and China, where there are pre-existing deals.In the India-set film, Patel plays an unlikely hero who emerges from prison to take on a world enmeshed in corporate greed and eroding spiritual values, seeking revenge from those who took everything from him many years ago.

ZDF Enterprises, the highly active international production and sales arm of German public broadcaster ZDF, has sealed a major multi-territory deal with Viasat World’s Epic Drama channel on “Dead Still,” continuing the macabre dramedic mystery series’ rollout in much of the world.Backed by U.S. SVOD service Acorn TV and Irish state TV service RTE, set in 1880 Dublin and starring Michael Smiley (“Luther”), Kerr Logan (“Game of Thrones”) and Eileen O’Higgins (“Mary Queen of Scots”), “Dead Still” will have its pay TV premiere on Oct.

voice-overs of his dogs Olive and Mabel - this time involving the Olympics. The adventures of the two Labradors have kept social media users entertained throughout lockdown, with the cheeky pair getting up to no good.

A man suffering excruciating pain was forced to seek a hip replacement in Lithuania after surgeons in Scotland said he was too fat to have the operation.