Pēteris Krilovs’s Film RED SHED | A Portrait of the Artist Raimonds Staprāns

In a poetic canvas of history and the present day, film and theatre director Krilovs blends the personal with the political. By staging history and creating a portrait of the artist Raimonds Staprāns, the question is raised: what is the artist’s responsibility before the curtain of history?

On the shore of the Baltic Sea stands a small red shed. It is a metaphor for the Latvian émigré artist Raimonds Staprāns, called an expressionist of realism. The shed has taken on real contours - it becomes a historical laboratory not only for the events of Latvian and European history, but also a point of reference for the life path of a vivid, tenacious and untamed artist. Alongside it intertwine the colors of San Francisco, the palette of Latvia, the past, the present, feature-film acting, and documentary textures.

Krilovs is a master of staged documentary cinema, who has created such classic works as “Klucis. The Wrong Latvian” (2008) and “On the Line Latvia” (2014). The author has always been interested in the concept of personal responsibility and in people whose life paths sharpen questions about an era. The protagonist of his latest documentary film is Staprāns, who fled his homeland at the beginning of the Soviet occupation and went to the United States, became a respected artist, and wrote plays about Latvian history. Both Krilovs and Staprāns are united by an interest in historical figures, and accordingly in the film these characters - portrayed by actors Imants Strads, Kaspars Zvīgulis and others - come to life and ask questions of their author. The film reveals Staprāns not only as a thinker and painter, but also as a playwright - one with a sharp-eyed and philosophical interest in Latvia while living on the other side of the ocean.

In the centenary year of Staprāns (1926-2026), several events are taking place that reveal his work, personality and life. The book “46 Episodes With and Without Irony” has recently been published, and in Riga, at the Latvian National Museum of Art, the exhibition “Raimonds Staprāns. The Architecture of Silence” is on view.