Laila Pakalnina: Termini

In “Spoon” (2019) and “Homes” (2021) Latvian director Laila Pakalniņa worked with cinematographer Gints Bērziņš, a collaboration that continued with “Termini”, that is as the previous films formally interesting due very much to the work of Bērziņš following the ideas from Pakalniņa , some would say crazy ideas, I am one of those, who would say wonderfully crazy! Pakalniņa, however, has always a focus on people and the two have an eye on, this time, how we behave, how we stand, how we sit, how we wait… for the bus to come and take us further in Life, in “the endless cycle of everyday routines”. It’s an invitation indeed. The film had its premiere in the city, where it was filmed, at the Riga FF and went later to Jihlava FF in Czech Republic and to a Chinese festival. In connection with a festival in Poland Pakalniņa said:

“Every film for me means risk. I am not craftsman; I am not delivering certain product. I am making film and that means breathtaking balancing between shit and art. I hope for art of course. And I admire this risk. As for me this is the only way how to make film… – I call my method of work “Fishing in the river of time”. As life is extremely talented, we just put camera, set composition and wait. And life happens. So film happens. Sometimes immediately, sometimes in hours and even days…”

If you are interested in the work of Laila Pakalniņa, you can find many posts on this website. About “Termini” I found this catalogue text from the Jihlava FF, very precise and inviting:

 “The final stops of buses, trams and trolleybuses in the suburbs of Riga. “Non-places” with no specific character, where nothing special happens and yet there is no stopping movement. Some people go from here to work or school, others return home. Or they work in their flower and vegetable stalls near the bus stops. Morning, evening, in snow and rain. Weekdays and holidays. Laila Pakalniņa captures their work, waiting and passing, calm and impatient, in tight moving shots. Gints Bērziņš’s black and white camera stays at one point, describing a circle that begins and ends nowhere. Ordinary stopping points, which we use without thinking about their function, become important crossroads in a wordless urban symphony, to whose unchanging rhythm the entire metropolis must submit…”

Photo: Hargla Company.

Latvia, 2024, 71 mins.