Leaving by the Way

Colour, 35mm
Latvia, 2001, 90 min
Section: Official Selection - Competition

Synopsis

Nine-year-old Dauka cannot wait for his dad to return from his sea voyage. But he doesn’t know that his father will never return because his mother is unable to tell him or his little sister that their dad is dead. She herself has not given up hope of her husband’s return but in spite of this her loneliness and hopelessness ever increase. She seeks consolation in the arms of her married neighbour, Viktor, and one day he thoughtlessly tells Dauka the truth. But the disconsolate boy doesn’t believe him and he runs away from home to find out what really happened. How can one survive in a world so horribly complicated by adults? Who will tell him – nature, people, the sea?

About the director

Viesturs Kairišs (b.1971, Riga, Latvia) graduated in film and theatre direction and has spent time working at both: he has already racked up nine plays and two operas to his credit. In 1999 he was awarded Best Latvian Theatre Director, and the year before he gained a name for himself at the EXPO Lisbon 1998 , and his opera production of Eugene Onegin won a music award. Kairišs has been making movies since 1995, at first shorts and documentaries. The half-hour drama The Wedding received various awards, and his latest film, Leaving by the Way, took Best Film at the Latvian National Film Festival.