Directed by Jānis Nords

The adventurous and touching story of Raimonds, a misunderstood adolescent, who in trying to console his relationship with his mother delves into a world of trouble and petty crime.

Feature, DCP, colour, 5.1 Surround Sound, 83’, 2013, Latvia

Mother, I Love You

F i l m s F r o m l a t v i a

The film is about a 13 year old boy from

Riga and his mother. Mother, I Love You has both a criminal plot and ten-sion. It is also a story about being able to maintain humanity even when you are in real trouble, states the director of the film Jānis Nords, labelling the genre of his film as a thriller of relationships. History of filmmaking is not rich in cases when a young director addresses children’s themes. 29 years old Latvian director Jānis Nords holding a Master’s Degree in Film Direction from the Na-tional Film and Television School in London might have found other chal-lenges such as dramatic playing with genres or masculine screen “games” more attractive than the scrupulous immersion in the relationship of a 13 year old boy and his mother with a lack of lush dramatic material at first sight. Nevertheless, Mother, I Love You is a more complicated case.

Raimonds is probably not an angel but, on the whole, an obedient child who loves his mother, diligently plays saxophone at the school band and has no heart to show his mother the school diary with a reprimand. (He played a dirty trick on a girl – shoved a bra in her musical instrument.) Raimonds grows up in a well-to-do “family”, more precisely, its contemporary modifica-tion – the father does not live in the family but there is a mother, a doctor, exhausted at work, running between duties, assisting at childbirth and lec-turing at the school of expectant moth-ers, from time to time lying to her son about another night duty to sneak away for a date. It is a normal everyday life. (Latvia has the biggest number of in-complete families and lonely mothers in European Union). Yet the drama of Mother, I Love You reveals gradually

and tension increases step by step as Raimonds gets mixed up in small lies that grow into big lies and their conse-quences balance on the verge of crime.

Everything starts by chance – Rai-monds and his friend get the keys to the flat the friend’s mother is cleaning. The owner of the flat visits it only occasion-ally. But his stylish motorcycle standing in one of the rooms becomes a tempta-tion for both the boys alluring them to visit the flat also without adults’ con-sent. Raimonds returns to this seeming-ly empty flat also after having decided to run away from home – because of the anger and because his mother has slapped him.

If a young director resorts to the theme of childhood one should most probably look for autobiographical references in the film. Although Jānis Nords emphasizes that Mother, I Love You is not borrowed from his life, the film, certainly, incorporates some of his childhood impressions and memories. Just like the protagonist of the film, also the director Nords in his childhood used to play saxophone at the school band. That’s why he himself could teach Kristofers Konovalovs (Raimonds) to play the basic scales – the music and this instrument play an essential role and help to enhance the drama of the film. Initially, the script written by Jānis Nords himself was set in 1990s, soon after the independence of Latvia was regained. However, the final version of the film is set in today’s Riga – the very heart of the city and the Old Town, having acquired qualities which are quite rare in the context of the Latvian cinema. This environment and the city in the film embodies that dynamic and at the same time impressionist qual-ity which the French nouvelle vague directors managed to attribute to Paris of 1950s – 60s in their films. The film experts will easily notice the similar-ity (closeness) between the intonation and system of characters of Mother, I

Love You and The 400 Blows by Fran-çois Truffaut. Raimonds and his friend are speeding along the streets with the same frenzy as the legendary Antoine Doiner (Jean-Pierre Léaud) with his schoolmate. Dynamics is accelerated in Mother, I Love You – Raimonds rides a scooter and his movement on the streets of Riga is emphasized both by the camera movement and the rhythm of editing of the film. Riga belongs to Raimonds and his friend just like Paris once belonged to the nouvelle vague characters.

Is similarity of Mother, I Love You with the classic nouvelle vague film The 400 Blows by François Truffaut delib-erate or still incidental? Jānis Nords: “Truffaut’s film once left a very strong impression on me and if we speak

Childhood and Lies

by Dita Rietuma, Film Critic

A film by Jānis Nords Mother, I Love You – tension and impressions in the environment of an incomplete family.

F i l m s F r o m l a t v i a

about the mother and son relationships as well as the system of characters we might find some similarities. However, the mother of Raimonds, unlike the mother of Truffaut’s character Antoine Doiner is not “monstrous”; remember that any attempt of her son to establish an actual contact with her failed. Moth-er and son relationships in Mother, I Love You are closer but also intertwined with lies. This is a film about lies and their consequences, about the small lies of the mother to her son, about lies of the son to his mother – lies incited by fear and embarrassment growing into dramatic stream of events.”

Similarities in the world perception, themes and style reflected by Mother, I Love You can also be found in his-torically closer contexts. It cannot be denied that stylistics of Mother, I Love You by Jānis Nords, the realistic and documentary manner of shooting and the ability of saturating the stream of seemingly common events with tension and empathy, is close to the film by Dardenne brothers The Kid with a Bike. The style of the film by Nords is related to the experience of the French and Belgian film directors whose names and stylistics have already been canonized in the history of cinema.

To reach such undeniably European stylistics Jānis Nords has gathered an international creative crew. He had been

looking for his potential associates and colleagues among the filmmakers partic-ipating and recognized at the Sundance Film Festival in America. Why there? “I am trying to follow everything happen-ing at Sundance Festival since the Amer-ican films shown there do not suffer from predictability and calculation; they can surprise and provoke,” says Nords. Thus works and style of the American director of photography Tobias Datum (the films Terri and Smashed) attracted the director, which in his opinion was appropriate to create the empathy and sense of subjectivity needed to get closer to the feelings, fear, lies and horror expe-rienced by Raimonds – the whole scale of emotions he is going through in the film. Nords also found his editor Tamara Meem owing to her film Sound of my Voice screened at Sundance.

Mother, I Love You is the second full length film by Jānis Nords. He made his debut film Amateur (2008) as an independent project attesting note-worthy professional qualities already before entering the NFTS in London. Kristofers Konovalovs is the main cast. Vita Vārpiņa, one of the most outstanding Latvian actresses of her generation, plays mother; and this film is her debut in cinema. Indra Briķe, Baiba Neja, Matīss Livčāns, Alvis Birk-ovs and Edgars Samītis are among the rest of the cast.

Director’sStatement

They say that fear has big eyes when you’re a child. A seemingly minor misdeed can seem like grand offence bound to bring harsh con-sequences. Add a mother, whose idea of bringing up her only child often borders with harsh control, and being honest might as well mean being punished.

When writing Mother, I Love You I was often borrowing from my own childhood experiences. However easy and harmless a sim-ple cover-up may feel initially, it always ends up as a burden. You’re almost always bound to lie more if only to cover the previous lie.

This predicament serves as the basis for the drama in Mother I Love You. Acting to his best inten-tions, Raimonds builds one lie on top of another, a cheat after cheat, gradually witnessing it turning into an avalanche of terrible events – running away from home, stealing to regain what’s been stolen from him, getting at odds with police and, finally, crushing the very ex-pectations of mother that he was trying to live up to.

Moreover, in order to stay above the water and regain the trust of his mother, Raimonds must betray his best friend Peteris. Thus, the con-science became another important aspect of the film. We, the grown-ups, expect children to act according to norms of morality or what we perceive as a good conscience. But conscience is a complex emotional intelligence that is learned over long periods of times and, often, through harsh experiences. Mother, I Love You features such learning experi-ence. One must get his hands dirty to come clean again.

Though Raimonds is faced with a moral dilemma – to act dishon-estly and escape punishment or tell the truth and face backlash – I tried to avoid teaching my protagonist a moral lesson.

Instead, I was looking to por-tray someone who fails, but when thrown into the wildest of circum-stances and faced with tough choic-es, manages to maintain his human-ity and gain conscience. In other words, a child who “grows up”.

Jānis Nords

Mother, I Love You

English Title Mother, I Love You Original Title Mammu, es tevi mīlu Genre Drama, crime Length Format 83’ Original Format RED 4K Screening Format DCP Screen Ratio 1:2.39 Colour colour Sound 5.1 Dolby Surround Dialogue Latvian Country Latvia Year of production 2013 Director Jānis Nords Screenplay Jānis Nords Cinematographer Tobias Datum Editor Tamara Meem Production Designer Ieva Kauliņa Costume Designer Katrīna Liepa Makeup Artist Emīlija Eglīte Main Cast Kristofers Konovalovs, Vita Vārpiņa, Matīss Livčāns, Indra Briķe Production Manager Daiga Livčāne Producers Alise Ģelze, Gatis Šmits Production Company Film Studio TANKA Dzirnavu 74/76, Rīga LV 1050, LatviaTel. +371 2687 1353alise@tasse.lvgatissmits@gmail.comjanis.nords@gmail.com In collaboration with ARTBOX (Lithuania) National Premiere February 2013 Supported by National Film Centre of LatviaState Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia

Festival ContactAstra SpalvēnaInformation and International RelationsNational Film Centre of LatviaPeitavas 10/12, Rīga LV 1050, LatviaTel. + 371 6735 8879astra.spalvena@nfc.gov.lvwww.nfc.lv

FILMOGRAPhYFeatures: Mother, I Love you (Mammu, es Tevi mīlu), 2013, director Return of Sergeant Lapins (Seržanta Lapiņa atgriešanās), 2011, writerAmateur (Amatieris), 2008, director, Best Debut prize at Latvian National Film FestivalShorts: Au Revoir Monkeys, 2011, directorFreedom Day, 2010, director

Jānis NordsAfter extensively working as the 1AD on various Latvian features and TV commer-cials, Jānis Nords shot his feature debut Amateur in 2008. The film won the Best Debut award at the Latvian National Film Festival. The following year he co-wrote Return of Sergeant Lapiņš (directed by Gatis Šmits), which premiered at Busan In-ternational Film Festival. He then studied film directing at National Film and Tele-

vision School in Britain. Mother, I Love You is Jānis Nords’ second feature.

Mother, I Love You was shot over 20 days on location in Latvia. The cast is predominantly non-professional and, often, filling in the roles they perform in real life – includ-ing policemen, teachers, orchestra con-ductor etc.

The main part of Raimonds is played by the 13 year old Kristofers Konovalovs for whom this was the first acting experience. Kristofers was found during an extensive casting period

where over 800 children where considered. Kristofers’ obsession with extreme bike riding and the level of control the sport requires proved to be his main advantage in maintaining concentration during the often exhausting filming period.

Raimonds mother is played by Vita Vārpiņa, one of the two professional per-formers in the entire film. For the last 12 years, Vita Vārpiņa has been an actress at the Latvian theatre Dailes Teātris.

The colourful orchestra conductor – Haralds Bārzdiņš – is actually a real-life orchestra enthusiast and one of the principal conductors at the Latvian Song and Dance festival.

The film was shot by Tobias Datum (Smashed, Terri) and edited by Tamara Meem (Sound of My Voice).