Māra

A slow, layered documentary that blurs performance and reality, asking for close attention as it unfolds a director's fraught family and artistic struggles.

Directed by

Krista Burāne

Genres

Documentary

Starring

Māra Ķimele, Toms Auniņš, Andris Keišs

Overview

This creative documentary tells the story of women in art – what she has to sacrifice in her personal life and what choices have to be made in order to gain success in her career. The film explores life of artist, by following theatre director’s Mara Kimele's fighting relationships with her despotic grandmother Anna Lacis (widely known as Asya, whose life is closely tied to the names of Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brech), cynical son Peteris (who is played by an actor) and work while she stages F. Dostoevsky's “Crime and Punishment”. Every character of film is an act. But does that make them any less real? And what is real in the world of art? Apart from its human character's, the film also has an animated one – the horse, who came into life through the first letter Mara wrote to her grand mother and has been following her ever since.

How it feels

Melancholic, tense, earnest and dark. Slow-burning and demanding.

About

Art, family, identity, obsession

Content

Mild language. No violence, gore or sexual content.

Note

Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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Watch the trailer on YouTube (opens in a new tab)