The Latvian-produced feature Monotonija (Monotony) has won the prize for best film in the “Perspectives” competition during the 29th Moscow International Film Festival. The award was announced June 30 at the conclusion of the nine-day festival, according to the festival’s Web site.

The 90-minute film is directed by Juris Poškus, who also wrote the screenplay. The cast includes Iveta Pole, Varis Piņķis, Artuss Kaimiņš and Andis Strods.

Pole portrays Ilze, a young woman who responds to advertisement in a newspaper and leaves her village to become an actress in Rīga. She fails, but cannot bring herself to return home. Her boyfriend comes to Rīga to bring her back, but then decides to leave for Ireland. The story unfolds as they lie to each other in an attempt to deal with their emotions.

The film saw its premiere in Rīga in January.

Poškus studied at the California Institute of the Arts, where he earned a master’s degree.

Minister of Culture Helēna Demakova congratulated Poškus on the film’s success, noting that it shows Latvian cinema is capable of being competitive. The film was financed largely from the state budget, according to a Ministry of Culture press release.

For visitors to the 12th Latvian Song Festival in Indianapolis who want to vote in the July 7 national referendum, the American Latvian Association has announced it will provide a 12-passenger bus to take them from festival hotels to the polling station.

The Latvian Community Center, 1008 W. 64th St., Indianapolis, is one of 47 polling stations abroad that will operate on July 7. It is nearly 10 miles from downtown Indianapolis, where song festival activities are scheduled.

Details on the bus schedule will be available at the song festival information desk, on the news boards and at the ALA stand in the festival hotel, the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown, 350 W. Maryland St., Indianapolis.

Pollings stations both in Latvia and abroad will be open from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. on July 7.

Voters must be Latvian citizens and be at least 18 years of age. A valid Latvian passport must be presented at the polling station.

The referendum asks voters whether they favor revoking controversial amendments to two national security laws. Because the amendments have already been rescinded by the parliament, the referendum is seen by some critics as a symbolic way of expressing lack of confidence in the Saeima and the government of Prime Minister Aigars Kalvītis.

Allied Irish Banks has agreed to buy the mortgage finance business of the Baltic-American Enterprise Fund in a EUR 40 million deal, the Dublin-based company announced June 29.

The mortgage finance business, called AmCredit, was established in 1997 and operates in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The Baltic-American Enterprise Fund itself was created in 1994 as a not-for-profit corporation with a USD 50 million investment from the U.S. Agency for International Development aimed at spurring development of the private sector in the three Baltic states. The fund’s headquarters is in Maryland.

AmCredit provides residential home loans and has 13 outlets and 145 staff members in the Baltics, according to a press release from Allied Irish Banks. The company expects to establish its own branches in the three countries and expand the range of products.

“We look forward to working with AmCredit’s management and staff in the development of the business in the years ahead,” Eugene Sheehy, CEO of Allied Irish Banks said in the press release. “AmCredit gives us an established foothold in the high-growth Baltic market and an opportunity to develop our business in a market contiguous to our Polish operations. We plan to grow its business and to expand the range of banking products sold into these new markets.”

As of September 2005, according to a Baltic-American Enterprise Fund annual report, the corporation had nearly USD 78 million invested in the Baltic states. Most of that, about USD 66 million, was in residential mortgage loans. Most of the investments, about USD 43.3 million, were in Latvia, followed by Estonia (USD 24.5 million) and Lithuania (USD 7.5 million).

Allied Irish Banks, formed in 1966, bills itself as Ireland’s leading banking and financial services organization. While its interests have been concentrated in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States, in 1995 it made its first foray into Eastern Europe by investing in a Polish bank that today is Bank Zachodni WBK, now one of the country’s largest.