The Coast is the first collaboration between director Aivars Freimanis and cinematographer Ivars Seleckis: an important duo practising the poetic documentary style of the 1960s. The film was shot in a fishing village on the west coast of Latvia, the then western border of the Soviet Union. The work was made using a new approach – the filmmakers spent the whole summer living and working in the village, which resulted in a picture that offers a personal take on its characters and demonstrates a true interest in an individual in his natural surroundings.