Laila Pakalnina

Motivation

Kinoatelje awards the 2014 Darko Bratina Award to Latvian director Laila Pakalnina for her versatile film creation. Laila Pakalnina observes life with attention to the smallest details, which seems ordinary but hides numerous absurdities beneath the surface of self-evidence. This duality immensely amuses her, and we, infected by her ambivalent view, are entertained as well. The distance she creates is, of course, comical but no less poetic and political. The border, our common theme, follows her through many films. She is interested in it as a social phenomenon that infuses everyday life with contradictions and as a phenomenon that allows us to see from the other side or see ourselves in the other.

Filmography

Documentary films

2014 SHORT FILM ABOUT LIFE (Oberhausen international short film festival)
2014 THE HOTEL AND A BALL (Visions du Reel international documentary film festival)
2013 THE CHIMNEY (Rome international film festival)
2012 SNOW CRAZY (Visions du Reel international documentary film festival)
2011 33 ANIMALS OF SANTA CLAUS (IDFA)2010 ON RUBIKS’ ROAD (67th Venice International Film Festival, Orizzonti)
2008 THREE MEN AND A FISH POND (Locarno film festival 2008, Filmmakers of the Present Competition)
2006 THEODORE (IDFA, Karlovy Vary international film festival 2007, documentary film competition)
2004 DREAM LAND (Karlovy Vary international film festival 2005, documentary film competition; European Film Academy nomination for best documentary)
2004 THE BUS1995 THE MAIL (Cannes film festival 1996, Un Certain Regard, Fipresci prize)
1994 THE FERRY (Cannes film festival 1996, Un Certain Regard, Fipresci prize)
1991 THE DOME (prize at the Brussels International Video Film Festival, 1992)

Short films

2009 SILENCE (Cannes film festival 2009, short film competition)
2008 STONES (Locarno film festival 2008, Ici et Ailleurs)
2007 FIRE (Locarno film festival 2007, Ici et Ailleurs; European Film Academy nomination for best short film)
2006 WATER (Berlinale 2006, short film competition)

Feature films

2012 PIZZAS, (Rome international film festival, Jury Special prize)
2006 THE HOSTAGE, (Locarno film festival
2006 Filmmakers of the Present Competition)
2003 THE PYTHON, (60th Venice International Film Festival, Controcorrente)
1998 THE SHOE, (Cannes film festival 1998, Un Certain Regard)