Latvian documentary "My Mother's Farm" receives 1st Prize at "The Art of Document" festival
By Editor.
07.12.2009
The documentary "My Mother's Farm" by Latvian director Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen has received the First Prize at the Warsaw multimedia festival "The Art of Document".
The festival's jury awarded the prize to the Latvian documentary for its powerful depiction of one person's strength and, at the same time, helplessness when facing history.
This year the festival focused on the events of the year 1989 in Europe: how they changed changed politics, arts and everyday life in Central and Eastern European countries.
The protagonist of the documentary "My Mother's Farm" is farmer Tale Kalna, the mother of the film's director, whom Burkovska Jacobsen has been filming over a period of 17 years. All of this time her mother has been struggling through her life at the farmstead in Auzinas. The very personal story about director's mother is also a very precise and laconic story about Latvia since the country regained independence in 1991, about dreams and reality, about political and social changes that affect people's lives.
The film, created at the "Ego Media" film studio, also received the Audience Sympathy award at "The Art of Document" festival. Earlier this year it received the Latvian film award "Lielais Kristaps" as the best documentary short.