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Baltic Film Festival showcases three movies

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The animation Lotte from Gadgetville features a girl dog and a story about a village that takes pride in inventing different things.

January 06, 2008

The seventh annual Baltic Film Festival is to showcase three films during a three-day run Jan. 11-13 in Toronto, including the Estonian-Latvian animation film Lotte from Gadgetville.

Sponsored by the embassies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and with support from the Secretariat of the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration Affairs in Latvia, the festival also will screen the 2005 Estonian film Fed Up! and the 2006 Lithuanian film Anastasia.

Lotte from Gadgetville (Lotte no Izgudrotāju ciema), a 2006 release, was directed by Heiki Ernits and Janno Põldma. The film focuses on an annual contest in the village of Gadgetville to design the “most efficient and wittiest invention,” according to promotional material for the animation. The film was co-produced by Estonia’s Eesti Joonisfilm and Latvia’s Rija Films.

“One of the most famous inventors in the village is Oskar, the father of the energetic girl dog Lotte,” the promotional material states. “His primary rival is Adalbert the rabbit, whose wife even participates in the competition with all her heart. Victory would be important to their family and would bring honor to the entire rabbit clan.”

Anastasia is directed by Latvia-born Māris Martinsons, who now runs a production company in Lithuania. The film centers on two Russian brothers who want neither to move to Russia nor live under the new post-independence Lithuanian government. They take a minivan full of passengers hostage and demand compensation.

Fed Up! is directed by Peeter Simm. The film is a comedy about a German truck driver whose wife has left him. He takes a trip to Estonia with a cast of characters in tow.

All three films will be screened at the NFB Mediatheque, 150 John St., Toronto. Fed Up! is scheduled at 7 p.m. Jan. 11, Lotte from Gadgetville at 6 p.m. Jan. 12, and Anastasia at 6 p.m. Jan. 13.

Tickets are CAD 9 for the general public and CAD 6 for senior citizens and children. Fed Up! and Anastasia are restricted to audiences age 18 and older.

— Andris Straumanis