Theodore

Colour, BETA SP
Latvia, 2006, 29 min
Section: Documentary Films in Competition

Synopsis

Every day, with clockwork regularity, 80-year-old Theodore sets off on his bicycle on a seven-kilometre journey to a place where it’s all happening: a bus stop in a God-forsaken Latvian village. With ritual ceremony, here he opens a bottle of beer, sits down on a bench and watches as time lazily meanders by. He shares his solitude with several other men. Only rarely do they utter some indeterminate comment about the weather or their health. Theodore’s almost stirring desire to be rid of his loneliness is conveyed via an economical style and pure form.

About the director

Laila Pakalnina (b. 1962, Liepaja, Latvia) studied journalism (1986) and film direction at Moscow’s VGIK (1991). She has made numerous documentary films and also several feature films: The Shoe (1998), The Python (2003) and The Hostage (2006). Documentary films: The Ferry (1994), The Oak (1997), Papa Gena (2001) and The Bus (2004). Her films have won a series of awards, both at home and abroad (e.g. the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes for the film The Ferry).