The Chronicles of Melanie

The Chronicles of Melanie
Directed by Viestur Kairish
Produced by Inese Boka-Grūbe
Gints Grūbe
Starring Sabine Timoteo
Music by Arturs Maskats
Kārlis Auzāns
Aleksandrs Vaicahovskis
Cinematography Gints Bērziņš
Edited by Jussi Rautaniemi
Release date
  • 1 November 2016 (2016-11-01)
(Latvia)
Running time
 120 minutes
Country Latvia
Language Latvian
Russian
Box office $5,227[1]

The Chronicles of Melanie (Latvian: Melānijas hronika) is a 2016 Latvian biographical drama film directed by Viestur Kairish, starring Sabine Timoteo. The film is based on the real life of Melānija Vanaga.[2] It was produced by Latvia's Mistrus Media and co-produced by the Czech Republic's 8Heads Productions and Finland's Inland Film Company.[3]

It received the award for best cinematography at the 2016 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.[4] It was selected as the Latvian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.[5][6]

Plot

Melānija and her son are forcefully moved from their home in Latvia to a slave camp in Siberia as part of the June deportation in 1941. For the next 16 years, she retains her will to live by writing letters to her husband, whose destiny she knows nothing about.

Cast

  • Sabine Timoteo as Melānija
  • Edvīns Mekšs as Andrejs
  • Ivars Krasts as Aleksandrs
  • Guna Zariņa as Katrīna
  • Maija Doveika as Vilma
  • Viktors Nemecs as Ampalov
  • Erwin Leder as Jakob
  • Evija Rudzīte as Biruta
  • Baiba Broka as Anna
  • Kirils Zaicevs as Lieutenant of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs
  • Astrīda Kairiša as Melānija's mother
  • Lilita Ozoliņa as deported woman
  • Ģirts Krūmiņš as Katrīna's husband Kārlis
  • Evija Martinsone as opera soloist

Reception

Wendy Ide of Screen Daily described the film as "a potent account of the human cost of Soviet ethnic cleansing in the Baltic region". She compared it to the 2014 Estonian film In the Crosswind, which also is about a woman subjected to the June deportation, and wrote that The Chronicles of Melanie is "less experimental in approach". Ide wrote: "The distorted sound creates a sense of delirium; the painfully slow movements of the malnourished women gives the film a nightmarish quality. Time slows down, both for the exiled Latvian women and also, at times, for the audience. It all amounts to a challenging viewing experience."[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "he Chronicles of Melanie (Melanijas hronika)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
  2. ↑ "Melānijas hronika / The Chronicles of Melanie". Kinobize. Archived from the original on 2017-02-04. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  3. ↑ Priimägi, Tristan (2016-11-29). "The Chronicles of Melanie: The dear deported". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
  4. ↑ "Award winners of the 20th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival". Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. 2016-11-25. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  5. ↑ "Latvija izvirza filmu «Melānijas hronika» Oskara balvai". LSM. 4 September 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  6. ↑ Boyle, Tim (5 September 2017). "Oscars: Latvia Selects 'The Chronicles of Melanie' for Foreign-Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  7. ↑ Ide, Wendy (2016-11-22). "'The Chronicles of Melanie': Tallinn Review". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
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