Europe arrives at the Talsi ‘Auseklis’ cinema

At the moment, Europe has entered the cinema “Auseklis”, which is located in Talso. It is currently the only Latvian regional cinema included in the international organization “Europe cinemas”. It will not introduce changes in the repertoire, as the Talsi cinema previously supplied such films to European cinema lovers, but it will provide further opportunities, new contacts and funding for a small regional cinema.

38 countries and 750 cities have joined the “cinemas of Europe”. Among them at the moment also Talsi. This means that 20% of the total repertoire will have to be European cinema. But actually Tulsi has already reached this number last year, enjoying Spanish, Italian, French and Scandinavian films.

“Actually, a lot of films are made in Europe, several thousand every year. And the best ones get there, which have already passed the selection of festivals. Which have been bought to be shown in Latvia. They are mostly really good films,” says Māra Cēbere, director of the “Auseklis” cinema theater.

Already this week, the people of Talsi will have the opportunity to see the winner of the Riga International Film Festival, the Icelandic film “Dievzeme”. In a small town, animated films, children’s cinema and light comedies are the most popular. Cēbere: “As different as we are, so are films. And I always say: the viewer has his own film. So, if that film is created, then it must also have an audience. And, yes, there are people who they come directly to European films and who love European cinema”.

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In Talas, young viewers love cinema, but in Europe the audience is getting older. Therefore, one of the objectives of “Europe cinemas” is to create specific programs for young people. Māra Cēbere underlines that the organization does not set the rules, but participation is an honor, an additional obligation and at the same time also an opportunity to attract funding for every spectator who comes to European cinema. “There is a rather complicated formula and an additional bonus system for the added programs. I don’t know how much the funding will be, but it will be in real euros in our budget, which we can use as we see fit and improve the lives of viewers, create new new projects”.

“Cinema will always be the main thing here, but little side steps make life interesting,” says Māra Cēbere, who has added an art space to the cinema. At the moment there are luminous works by Emma Sofia, which will be replaced at the end of January by paintings by Karine Paronyants, inspired by the film “The Color of Garnet” by Armenian director Sergei Paradzhanov.

Until now, Latvia was represented by three Riga cinemas in the “Europe cinemas” organization, and “Splendid Palace” even received an award for the best film program a year ago. This is what inspired Talsus to join them.