Soviet Milk

Mātes piens

LATVIA
Directed by: Ināra Kolmane
Based on the international-bestselling novel by renowned Latvian author Nora Ikstena, Soviet Milk is a powerful mother-daughter drama set in the era of the Soviet occupation of Latvia. Unfolding between 1945 and 1989, the film revolves around the life of Astra, a promising doctor who loses everything due to her opposition to the totalitarian Soviet regime: her career, her love for life, and even her maternal instinct to breastfeed her baby. “I didn’t want to live and I didn’t want her to drink milk from a mother who doesn’t want to live.” As the years of struggle go by, her now grown-up daughter becomes her lifeline, trying to ease Astra’s depression and help her learn to live under the Soviet regime—a regime whose collapse may be on the horizon. An inspiring tale of love and loyalty.

“Maintains a high poetic intensity … A great merit of [Inara Kolmane’s film] is that she—without exaggeration and didacticism—is able to build a serious foundation of humanism.”

Dmitry Rantsev, Arterritory

Language:
In Latvian and Russian with English subtitles
Genre:
Historical Drama
Runtime:
110 min
YEAR:
2023
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Awards:

  • Bulgarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards 2018
  • Golden Rose Festival of Bulgarian film: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Critics Gild Award and Audience Award
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