The red barn

Director: Pēteris Krylovs

Country: Latvia, 2026.

Length: 75 min.

Genre: Documentary

Age limit: 16+

In the poetic canvas of history and today, cinema and theater director Krylov merges the personal with the political. When staging history and creating a portrait of the artist Raimonds Staprán, the question is asked: what is the responsibility of the artist at the curtain of history?

A small, red barn stands on the shore of the Baltic Sea. It is a metaphor of the Latvian exile artist Raimonds Stapráns, known as a realist expressionist. The shed has acquired real outlines - it turns into a historical laboratory not only for the events of Latvian and European history, but also a reference point for the life of a bright, tenacious and untamed artist. At the same time, the color of San Francisco, Latvian palette, past, present, acting cinema and also documentary textures alternate.

Krylovs is a master of staged documentary cinema, who created such chronological works as "Klucis. Nepareizais latvietis" (2008) and "Latvija at stake" (2014). The author's interests have always been the concept of personal responsibility and people whose lives raise questions about the era. Staprāns, who fled his homeland at the beginning of the Soviet occupation and went to the United States, became a valued artist and wrote plays about the history of Latvia. Like Krylov, Stapranas are also interested in historical figures, and naturally in the film these characters - played by actors Imants Strads, Kaspars Zvīgulis and others - come alive and ask questions to their author. The film reveals Staprāns not only as a thinker and painter, but also as a playwright - someone who has a keen and philosophical interest in Latvia, living on the other side of the ocean.

In the year of Staprán's (1926–2026) centenary, 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 the exhibition "Raimonds Staprāns. Architecture of Silence" can be seen in the Latvian National Art Museum in Riga.

Film in Latvian and English with subtitles in Latvian.

Organizer: Kino galerija, SIA