Following their Academy-Award winning film, "The Pianist," director Roman Polanski and writer Ronal Harwood re-imagine Charles Dickens' classic story of a young orphan boy who gets involved with a gang of pickpockets in 19th Century London. Abandoned at an early age, Oliver Twist (Barney Clark) is forced to live in a workhouse lorded over by the awful Mr. Bumble, who cheats the boys of their meager rations. Desperate yet determined, Oliver makes his escape to the streets of London. Penniless and alone, he is lured into a world of crime by the sinister Fagin (Sir Ben Kingsley) - the mastermind of a gang of pint-sized pickpockets. Oliver's rescue by the kindly Mr. Brownlow is only the beginning of a series of adventures that lead him to the promise of a better life.
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Barney Clark, Jamie Foreman, Frank Finlay, Lewis Chase, Frances Cuka, Jake Curran, Harry Eden
English language with latvian and russian subtitles.
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) has a unique talent for discerning the scents and smells that swirl around him, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. Strangely lacking any scent of his own, he becomes obsessed with capturing the irresistible but elusive aroma of young womanhood. As Grenouille's obsession turns deadly, twelve young girls are found murdered. Panic breaks out as people rush to protect their daughters, while an unrepentant and unrelenting Grenouille still lacks the final ingredient to complete his quest.
Based on the bestselling novel by Patrick Süskind.
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Ben Whishaw
Directed by Tom Tykwer
English language with subtitles in Latvian and Russian.
CASINO ROYALE, the 21st James Bond adventure in the most successful franchise in film history, stars Daniel Craig in his debut as 007, and is based on Ian Fleming's first novel to feature the ultimate secret agent, which was published in 1953.
CASINO ROYALE traces the early career of James Bond. His first "007" mission leads him to Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), banker to the world's terrorists. In order to stop him, and bring down the terrorist network, Bond must beat Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker game at Casino Royale. Bond is initially annoyed when a beautiful Treasury official, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), is assigned to deliver his stake for the game and watch over the government's money. But, as Bond and Vesper survive a series of lethal attacks by Le Chiffre and his henchmen, a mutual attraction develops leading them both into further danger and events that will shape Bond's life forever.
Casting Daniel Craig, Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green, Judie Dench, Jeffrey Wright
Directed by Martin Campbell
Script Neal Purvis / Ian Fleming
Producer Barbara Broccoli
A child during WWII, Hannibal Lecter sees his parents and younger sister brutally killed right before his eyes. His uncle later finds Hannibal in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France. The youngster flourishes and becomes the youngest person ever admitted to medical school in France. But the demons of his tragic past torment and haunt him, unleashing a monster inside.
Cast: Gaspard Ulliel, Ivan Marevich, Aaron Thomas, Rhys Ifans Gong Li, Ingeborga Dapkunaite
Directed by Peter Webber
According to Marlene Dietrich, chanteuse Edith Piaf's voice was "the soul of Paris." This French drama explores the often troubled life of the singer as her fame took her from the City of Lights to America to the South of France. Abandoned by her mother, Piaf grew up in her grandmother's brothel and her father's circus, which is hardly the fun one might imagine. While singing on the streets of Paris as a teen, Piaf (played as an adult by Marion Cotillard, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT) is discovered by club owner Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu), and this chance encounter changes the woman's life. Her powerful voice takes her all over the globe, but it can't guard her from the pain and suffering she can't avoid.
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Gérard Depardieu, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Paul Rouve
Directed by Olivier Dahan
"Kinoautomat" is the world’s first interactive film - a black comedy satire on democracy - whose plot and story are determined by the audience. A naked woman, an apartment building in flames, a car chase, and it’s always up to you what happens next! The action stops at nine points, and the audience has to choose between two scenes; following the vote, the chosen scene is played. The film, made in 1967 in Czechoslovakia, has since been screened exclusively only a handful of times, and has attracted thousands of excited spectators. The film will be screened in Riga twice as part of the Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS.
Cast: Karla Chadimová, Miroslav Hornícek, Jan Libícek
Directed by: Radúz Činčera
A Royal Affair is a gripping tale of brave idealists who risk everything in their pursuit of freedom for the people, but above all it is the story of a passionate and forbidden romance that changed an entire nation.
Snowpiercer is set in a future where, after a failed experiment to stop global warming, an Ice Age kills off all life on the planet except for the inhabitants of the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe and is powered by a sacred perpetual-motion engine. A class system evolves on the train but a revolution brews.
Early 18th century. Cartographer Jonathan Green undertakes a scientific voyage from Europe to the East. Having passed through Transylvania and crossed the Carpathian Mountains, he finds himself in a small village lost in impassible woods. Nothing but chance and heavy fog could bring him to this cursed place. People who live here do not resemble any other people which the traveler saw before that. The villagers, having dug a deep moat to fend themselves from the rest of the world, share a naive belief that they could save themselves from evil, failing to understand that evil has made its nest in their souls and is waiting for an opportunity to gush out upon the world.
A politically-charged serial killer thriller set in 1953 Soviet Russia, "Child 44" chronicles the crisis of conscience for secret police agent Leo Demidov, who loses status, power and home when he refuses to denounce his own wife, Raisa, as a traitor. Exiled from Moscow to a grim provincial outpost, Leo and Raisa join forces with General Mikhail Nesterov to track down a serial killer who preys on young boys. Their quest for justice threatens a system-widecover-up.
Youthful dreams, the best years of her life, health, home, husband, son, homeland – the Soviet regime took it all away, yet she survived. She survived to write it all down, so that generations to come would never forget the story that was forced on all of us.
Film based on the memoirs of Latvian writer Melanija Vanaga "Suddenly, a Criminal: Sixteen Years in Siberia".
In 1939 Poland, Antonina Żabińska and her husband, Jan Żabiński, have the Warsaw Zoo flourishing under his stewardship and her care. When their country is invaded by the Germans, they are forced to report to the Reich's newly appointed chief zoologist. To fight back on their own terms, Antonina and Jan covertly begin working with the Resistance – and put into action plans to save lives out of what has become the Warsaw Ghetto, with Antonina putting herself and even her children at great risk.