HOSTAGE
[Kilnieks]

Director Laila Pakalnina casts an absurdist eye on Latvian society in this shaggy dog would-be thriller. A becalmed airline hijacker (Slovene actor Branko Zavrsan, NO MAN'S LAND) redirects his flight to Riga, releasing all the passengers save eight-year-old Kristaps Mednis, who strikes up a friendship with his captor. Around the airport, larger uproars over smaller crises are breaking out: a doping scandal at a bicycle race, a citation to a driver for illegally transporting rabbits, a random shooting at a farmer's truck piercing one of his beehives. An enigmatic allegory from Latvia's most prolific filmmaker.

DIR/SCR/PROD Lalia Pakalnina; PROD Ark Okk and Igor Pedicek. Estonia/Latvia/Slovenia, 2006, color, 74 min. In English and Latvian with English subtitles. NR

EU Home