Jeglava94

Award Winner

Nominated on:Best Drama

Film Info

Film Year: 2019

Film Duration: 88 min

Country: Latvia

Director

Janis Abele

Film Category
Synopsis

This story is set in the 1994 in the Latvian town of Jelgava and is a touching film about us as youngsters, when everybody is against the whole world and tries not to become ‘one of them’. Central to the film “Jelgava94” there is a fourteen-year-old Janis, a boy from the small town of Jelgava in Latvia. Although for him learning comes easily, yet he himself aims to stay out of the limelight. However, after falling in love with his classmate Kristine and accidentally making new friends – Death and Zombie – he turns over a new page in his teenage life. He dreams of playing in a band, he starts listening to heavy metal music, he starts wearing a completely new set of clothes. This is a journey that inevitably leads both his teachers and his parents to tears. As you grow older, one might want to forget about this time of life, but it could, just as easily, turn out to be unforgettably good. The film’s storyline reflects real events that are part of Janis Joņev’s prize winning novel “Jelgava94”, on which the film is based. In the novel, like in the film – an escape of prisoners from Jelgava’s jail, a pirated music market, Kurt Cobain’s death and Janis’ life collide.