BOX OFFICE: Latvian/Czech/Lithuanian City On The River Tops Latvian BO

29-01-2020

BOX OFFICE: Latvian/Czech/Lithuanian City On The River Tops Latvian BO

By Zane Balčus

City On The River by Viesturs Kairišs photo: Ego Media, photographer Agnese Zeltiņa

RIGA: The historical drama City on the River / Pilsēta pie upes, the fourth feature film directed by Viesturs Kairišs, has dominated the Latvian box office for two consecutive weekends since its release in mid-January 2020. The Latvian/Czech/Lithuanian coproduction has reached 28,872 admissions on 20 screens across Latvia.

City on the River focuses on Ansis, a young man who works as a sign-painter in a remote village on the bank of a river. Through his perspective, political changes and upheavals in the country at the end of the 1930s to the mid-1940s are explored.

City On The River by Viesturs Kairišs, photo: Ego Media, photographer Agnese Zeltiņa The film was produced by Ego Media (Latvia) in coproduction with 8Heads Productions (Czech Republic) and Artbox (Lithuania). The film has an international cast and crew, and it is distributed in the Baltic countries by ACME Film.

City on the River continues the success of Latvian films at the local box office. In 2019, Latvian films had 20.18% of all market share in the box office. The number one film in 2019 was the Latvian historical coming-of-age drama Blizzard of Souls / Dvēseļu putenis directed by Dzintars Dreibergs an produced by Kultfilma, with 226,984 admissions (8.34 % of total admissions in 2019).

Published in Latvia