Cinema
Zvejnieka dēls
Vilis Lapenieks · 1940
Synopsis
Oskars, son of the old fisherman Kļava, refuses the path his family lays out for him: he wants to free the fishermen from the fish merchant who buys their fish, build an icehouse and found a cooperative. The film mixes in love, betrayal and the picturesque figures of a fishing village, and sets the old against the new; Oskars, played by Pēteris Lūcis, is likened there to Lāčplēsis, the hero of Latvian legends, and two women, Anita and Zenta, vie for him.
Context
The project was born in 1938 at the State cinema service, which paid for the whole shoot, from Ragaciems to Plieņciems, from Majori to Pape and to Nida. Alfrēds Pole signed the cinematography, Jānis Mediņš the music. The premiere took place on 22 January 1940 at the Splendid Palace in Riga, in the presence of Kārlis Ulmanis, and legend has it that the crowd broke down the cinema's doors. The historian Inga Pērkone today praises the quality of its images of nature and fishing.
Who it is for
A popular sea melodrama, easy to follow, whose fishing scenes have kept their power.
Prizes and reception
Seen by about two hundred and fifty thousand people in two months, and regarded today as a classic.
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