Yevgeny Pashkevich’s film “What Silent Gerda Knows” Comes to the Audience / Article / LSM.lv

Filmmakers and fans of high quality cinema in Latvia Jevgenijs Paškēvičs’ film “What does Pacific Gerda know”Waited several years. Although it is already included in the list of “Kristaps the Great” nominees, it was not until the evening of October 23 that the film premiered at the screening of the Riga International Film Festival (Riga IFF). Visually artistic, very aesthetic and rich in cultural symbols – a worthy addition to the range of feature films characteristic of the director. –

Somewhere in Latvia is the ancient manor of Baron Fitinghof, where representatives of fine circles have settled. This is a special hotel. Life here takes place in the aesthetics of the interwar period, and any modern technology is forbidden. As if to improve health and calm the nerves. It is in this environment that Jevgenijs Pashkevich’s latest film “What Silent Gerda Knows” takes place.

Unlike the works of other directors, the viewers of Paškēvičs’ film have been waiting for years. Also this, because his previous work came out in 2012.

“Probably, unlike my colleagues, I find it more difficult to find material for the film. One that I would like to film and under which I could subscribe, ”says the director. “However, there is a slightly different element around. Colleagues have stocks of ideas and scenarios. They react emotionally to historical processes. So to speak, in the morning in the newspaper, in the evening in the song. ”

Pashkevich explains: “I have long chosen what to build. The key is choice and purpose.

You know, if you ask a question exactly, then it’s already half of the interesting answer.

Otherwise – I like something today, but after a few days or weeks I don’t like it anymore. That’s why I’m very careful with the choice. ”

In this work, too, the director continues to use the language of symbols and cultural references, without sinking the characters’ characters into details and blurring the boundaries between their fantasies and reality. All this is shown in a series of picturesque frames for an hour and a half.

“Not everyone goes to museums, not everyone listens to symphonic concerts and not everyone reads European, world or national literary classics. My films are more or less saturated with these cultural values.

They are not created by me, I concentrate, assemble them, and it is always an aesthetic journey.

My films categorically avoid social unrest. They have no ideology and politics, which is useless nonsense for me, ”the director points out.

A bright ensemble of actors participates in the film. Russian film and theater star Leonīds Jarmolņiks, Lithuanian actors Severija Jaseltauskaite and Leonards Pobedonoscevs, as well as well-known Estonian actresses Merle Palmiste and Kērta Tammjarve. The roles are also played by Gundars Āboliņš, Inese Pudža, Gatis Gāga and other domestic actors.

Pashkevich’s film has finally satisfied fans of his work. All that remains is to answer what is Pacific Gerda. Presumably, it is a heron who, in the episodes of the film, occasionally majestically reminds of himself and knows how to predict the change of weather. But there is no lack of such an image in this cinema.

–