Classic films, new documentaries and other movies from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will be presented Oct. 17-22 during the Baltic Film Festival Berlin, according to organizers. The festival this year is part of the year-long Essentia Baltica 2008 culture festival taking place around Germany.

Films will be presented at the Babylon, Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30, Berlin. In all, 20 films will be screened.

Among Latvian films scheduled for screening are the late Juris Podnieks’ well-known 1986 documentary, Vai viegli būt jaunam? (Is It Easy To Be Young?), which examined youth culture in the time of Soviet perestroika, and Edvīns Šnore’s 2008 documentary, The Soviet Story, which looks at the historical relationship between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Other Latvian films on the program are Reibums (Disgust), a 2007 short feature by director Aiks Karapetjans; Natsid ja blondiinid (Nazis and Blondes), a 2008 Estonian-Latvian documentary directed by Arbo Tammiksaar; Teat Beat of Sex: Episodes 8, 9, 10, 11, a 2007 short animation film by Signe Baumane that was produced in New York; and Vai citi? (Us and Them), a 2006 documentary by Antra Cilinska.

Also on the program is a screening of Midsummer Madness, a 2006 feature film directed by the Latvia-born Alexander Hahn. The comedy, shot in Latvia, focuses on the efforts of a young man who visits the country during Midsummer to find his father’s former lover.

Latvia’s ambassador to Germany, Ilgvars Kļava, will be among officials speaking during the festival’s opening event Oct. 17, according to the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For further information, visit www.balticfilmfestivalberlin.net.