Gaismas pils 2023

Directed by Edgars Kaupers

It's 1985, and Latvia is still under the Soviet occupation. Haralds Mednis, acclaimed Latvian choral conductor, is expelled from participating at the National Song and Dance festival, and a symbolic Latvian song "Gaismas pils" ("Castle of Light") is excluded from the programme of the festival. However, the choirs and the public shout out Haralds Mednis's name and try to get him to conduct "Gaismas pils", in spite of the censors. This film is an attempt to imagine what the people working for the state apparatus tasked with oppressing any rebellious actuons might have felt at that moment back in 1985.