My Mother the State is a story about the search for belonging and family lost in adoption. It follows a young woman Una, who was the first person using the change in Latvian Law to find her sister, lost in the process of adoption. Battling the bureaucratic obstacles, Una discovers that she has not only one but four sisters, all adopted and scattered around the world. The search for them becomes her mission that takes her to different places in Europe, Russia and the USA.

The film is planned to be the last instalment of a trilogy about family issues. It began with Ozoliņa’s graduation film My Father the Banker / Mans tēvs baņķieris (2015, produced by Mistrus Media), and was followed by Solving My Mother / Dotais lielums – mana māte (2017, produced by Fa Filma).

“The film tells about the most fragile and most important power that a human can possess – the power of family. It’s a topic that interests me in the documentary cinema and that has been the focus of my previous films. With this film I’m trying to grasp a life that’s led besides us, to discover a protagonist who devotes all her energy solely towards achieving a goal. A goal that is more powerful than the endless obstacles in the way,” Ieva Ozoliņa told FNE.

Ozoliņa’s previous two films have received recognition on an international and national scale. Her first feature documentary My Father the Banker (2015), which was her graduation film at the Latvian Academy of Culture and focused on looking for her missing father, was awarded Best Latvian Documentary at the National Film Festival and received the annual award by the Latvian Ministry of Culture in film. It was widely distributed and shown on numerous TV channels, including Al Jazeera. Her second film Solving My Mother (2017), on mother and son relationship, premiered in the IDFA First Appearance competition and received jury special mention.  

My Mother the State at a project stage was presented at Latvia’s Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries and at Nordisk Panorama Forum (Sweden) in 2018.

The film is supported by the National Film Centre of Latvia with 63,058 EUR and the Icelandic Film Centre with 29,600 EUR. The total budget is 126,000 EUR.

The film’s expected release is early 2021.

Production information:

Fa Filma (Latvia)
Republik (Iceland)

Credits:
Director, screenwriter: Ieva Ozoliņa
DoP: Mārcis Slavinskis
Editor: Jurģis Ločmelis
Music: Mikael Lind
Production manager: Laura Oliņa, Halldór Hilmisson
Producer: Madara Melberga
Coproducer: Larus Jonsson